LORNA SAGUBA
| Ples Singsing

Hey, Style Mangi!
You come in your flashy car
On my dusty, bumpy road,
You tok, VOTE ME!
I build sealed roads,
But all I see after election,
You drive the Japanese 5 door,
While I lek faia the red karanas.

BERNARD CORDEN

Fight against ruining the Sepik
Stop harm in the Sepik

PanAust, 1/15 James Street in Fortitude Valley
Pukpuk LV handbags along every alley
Another Burlington Arcade so trendy and chic
The Sepik – A South Pacific Amazon
Once pristine but no longer unique

Map of the Black Cat Track and surrounding landmarks

MOSES ANDRIAS
| Ples Singsing

LAE – Morobe, November 2018, a blend of everything Papua New Guinean, from the cool mountainous ridges that step from the majestic highlands to the endless plains of the Markham and onwards to the shoreline of the Huon Peninsula.

A walk around Eriku and a visit to Lae Market remains no exception to this, fruits and vegetables of variety, faces and languages of throughout the country, all in chaotic-harmony of economic exchange.

Jenelyn Kennedy. "Tell me, Jenelyn, why must love grieve today? / Is there no mercy to grant us reprieve today?

MICHAEL DOM

Jenelyn Kennedy. Born, 18 March 2001. Gagged, chained, beaten & tortured by her husband for six days, 18-23 June 2020. Died of head injuries & bruised internal organs caused by blunt force, 23 June 2020, aged 19.

LAE - This is a poem I did not want to share. I am doing so because Jenelyn's story haunts me.

Just nineteen when she died, she was the same age as my baby girl. She was the mother of two infant children.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION - Ambassador Akali Wakane – The Old Man – had long been a respected figure in Papua New Guinea but now he had become an instant hero, a household name in every settlement in Port Moresby and throughout the country.

Talk of his Supreme Court victory in the Old Dairy Farm land appeal had travelled fast, and around the streets and villages he had become known as ‘Rabinhat’- the man who took from the rich man and gave to the poor man.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION – As the crowd dispersed, The Old Man met with Fredric Farapo and his people in the middle of Independence Drive and Simon Kerowa drove the Governor Bird back to his accommodation at the Ela Beach Hotel.

The Old Man, Kerowa, Farapo and some compatriots who had planned the peaceful outcome would join him for dinner that evening.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION – The three-vehicle convoy slowly wended its way through the crush of angry demonstrators, their bodies painted in black charcoal and burnt car tyres mixed with oil.

Some beat the sides of the cars, but the white flags did their job of displaying peaceful intent.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION – It had been a hectic early morning but now Delisa was safely seated in an Air Niugini Boeing 737 cruising over the Bismarck Sea towards Brisbane.

Delisa could not enjoy the flight. Nor could she take the refreshments served by the cabin crew. She did not feel like food while there was trouble at home.

MICHAEL DOM
| An Illumination in English and Tok Pisin

Standing stupidly
You stand at the door
Belonging to God and pray
What for don’t you knock

Perhaps it is that
He’s too great a being
For you to rap on his door

Daniel Kumbon and grandson Clinton.  Kundiawa,  2021

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION - For millennia, land has been the lifeblood and spiritual amalgam of the Melanesian people.

Land. Much more than a possession to be traded. An ancestral bequest to the people, uniting the past with the future.

Brutal tribal wars were fought over the ownership of land. Countless numbers of people – both warriors and the innocent – lost their lives over land.

MICHAEL DOM

Mama tang
The hook
Long hangamapim
Your items of bilas
Is not missed
Until it's not there
At the pool showers
Na your bilas
Emi silip long floa 
And gets trod on
By other swimmers
Disregarded, made to look
Olsem pipia. Ragged.
Go ahead
Have your swim
When you're done
Bai yu painim 
Narapela trasis 
Long karamapim ass
Bilong yu na sem
Olsem na
In what language 
Will you excuse yourself
And the sem pipia
Taim kastam emi lus

DANIEL KUMBON

An extract from Daniel’s forthcoming book, The Old Man’s Dilemma, a novel about modern Papua New Guinea, its issues, its stresses and its journey to a place unknown

FICTION – A cold tremor like an electrical current shot down The Old Man’s spine. The reports he was receiving about an insurrection were ominous.

He feared that Papua New Guinea was heading for a period of extreme violence and instability.

MICHAEL DOM

a butterfly brooch
at some stage a blue present
the pin pricked my thumb
sweet sweat stains, your blouse, your hair
familiar to my big nose

An extract from Put Me On Your Tongue, a new
collection of Michael Dom poetry coming soon

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION - The Old Man said he would drop Delisa at the hospital and get her at a quarter to twelve to go for lunch at Ribito Grill and Restaurant.

“You’ll meet the remarkable young man who saved my life,” he said. “I wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for him. I had passed out.”

MICHAEL DOM

Your face unwrinkles
You are imponderable
In your vast silence
In your deep, dark blue embrace
Who dares breach your salty keep?

Your face wrinkles up
You are implacable
In your looming rage
In your deep, dark blue embrace
Who dares test your briny breath?

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION – It was a few days after The Old Man returned from Japheth and Nathan’s wedding in Lae that a strange number appeared on his mobile phone.

Unknown callers worried The Old Man. Too often he had received disturbing news that left half-eaten food cold on the table.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION - Delisa broke the news of her pregnancy to Japheth, sounding anxious as she spoke to her mother about her duties in the maternity ward of the over-stretched general hospital.

Japheth assured her everything would be fine. She didn’t have to worry. Delisa was strong and healthy. She was a sensible young woman. And she was married to a clever man.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION - Japheth remembered that morning when The Old Man and his wantok from Bumbu Oil Palm Plantation breakfasted in her new house.

Japheth had welcomed the wantok and served him breakfast, seeming to recognise him but avoiding eye contact.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION – It was an urgent call from Japheth that alerted Delisa and The Old Man to the problem. Calls from other relatives in Bumbu village soon followed.

Japheth’s former husband had just been chased away from the vicinity of the new house.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION - The Old Man knew only too well that people throughout Papua New Guinea desperately needed basic services like health and education.

He had done what he could through his charity for disadvantaged children, but it seemed no person could meet the problems were tearing apart urban settlements and just about every village in the country.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION - Last night, peeping through the window, the Moon saw The Old Man and Delisa kiss for the first time.

And on this next morning, the soft gold rays of the early sun flooded the bedroom through that same window to herald the first day of their new life together.

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

FICTION - Koko’s grandmother held the strange object up to the light.

“It’s as though water has been turned into stone and this thing has been made from it,” she said, placing it back into Koko’s outstretched hands.

“You say the white man gave it to you?”

Koko nodded.

STEPHANIE ALOIS

She was quite a nerd while in her childhood
Celebrated party girl, a beauty, in her teens
Sometimes you can glimpse the image from those days  
Sheltering sad thoughts that lie deep below
But you’ll never know the depths of that love
Or the invisible residue of pain now it’s lost

Bougainville traditional mona

SIMON PENTANU MP

KIETA - Canoes, not unlike boats, come in different sizes and varying shapes and different abilities to manoeuvre.

The ones most common in Bougainville today are outrigger canoes. Also still in use is the mona which has a colourful history and folklore but its use has been on the decline.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION – As soon as Delisa returned from the college with her belongings she went straight to Japheth’s new house to pack properly.

She decided to leave most of her possessions behind and pack just her clothes, a few personal items and educational certificates.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION - Delisa woke with a start. It was The Old Man calling. “Good morning, Delisa, how was last night?” he teased.

“It was really good until you spoilt it for me.”

“How?” The Old Man feigned surprise.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION – The ceremony over and the photographs taken, The Old Man and Delisa decided to skip the refreshments for the new nursing graduates and drive straight from Lae to Bumbu village where a big mumu was sizzling amidst hot stones.

The family trooped to the three vehicles. Delisa sat in the backseat while, as protocol dictated, her aunt’s husband sat in the front seat with The Old Man.

RICHARD HAUSER

With skin like burnished copper parchment
this slim Eurasian lady seems in charge.
She emerges from the shadows of the shelves
and the pages of a spy yarn, now at large.

Her manner firm, attesting ownership,
insisting that I do it by the book
and sterilise my suspect Covid hands
lest I taint her tidy tomes as I look.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION - Early on the morning of the graduation, The Old Man drove from Lae International Hotel to Bumbu village to finalise arrangements for the festivities.

He had asked Japheth to call Delisa to pass on the message that he and Japheth, together with her siblings, would come to the graduation.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION – When Delisa read the text message from The Old Man, she was stunned.

‘I have to come to your graduation as this is the fruit of my efforts and your own commitment to your studies,’ the crucial line had said. The Old Man would be there. He would come to her graduation.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION - The Old Man was glad, the nursing college graduation was only two weeks away and the three new houses had been completed in record time.

The house built for Japheth had three bedrooms, and was fully furnished. It had power and water connected complete with Tuffa storage tanks.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION - The Old Man had never imagined his life would end up like this when he and Rosemary agreed to help Delisa.

But now he had decided to marry this young woman, just a girl to him, late in life when the sun was setting.

Richard Hauser - amongst many other attributes, an urban hunter

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA - It is only recently that I have been introduced to the poetry of Richard Hauser; it's poetry that I admire a great deal.

So much so that I felt compelled to share his writing, especially with those many poets of Papua New Guinea who frequently appear in these columns.

DANIEL KUMBON

FICTION - Delisa was convinced the Old Man would accept her into his now empty life if he knew the real story behind her father.

Her father was not dead, as had been her original invention. She felt it was time to tell the whole truth.

She wanted to avoid disharmony and embarrassment later when they lived together. For Delisa it was ‘when’, not ‘if’.

RAYMOND SIGIMET

FICTION - I heard the knocking and a call around six just as I was preparing notes for tomorrow’s sermon.

I knew it was Pita, the son of the parish chairman, Mathias. Occasionally he’s one of the minstrels at my Sunday mass.

The way he was rapping on the porch railing and calling out, I figured something must be up.

DUNCAN GABI

FICTION - It was just two weeks before the Grade 10 national exams and everyone was freaking out, especially those like me who weren’t prepared.

Some students collected as many notes as possible and left school three weeks before the exams to study at home.

RAYMOND SIGIMET

FICTION - I was looking through patient admission records before my evening ten o'clock ward rounds when a vehicle roared into sight.

Its emergency blinkers flashed brightly on the single cabin utility and the engine overrevved as it screeched to a halt.

STEPHANIE ALOIS

So I’ve said nothing, nothing at all
about our Celest. Maybe you heard?
My sister’s such a disappointment.
She goes off to school each day
in hope of a future bright and bold,
Then comes home full of complaint
about clothes, stationery, friends, money.

As the sun set over the low hills of Port Moresby, the Old Man would go to the veranda to read

DANIEL KUMBON
| Edited extracts

FICTION - While the Old Man embraced the notion that he was like the Albatross, committed to one partner for life, he was finding it hard to cope with the agony of acute depression.

He had been so dependent on Rosemary. She had provided him with all the love a man could ever need. He felt her loss immensely. It was a burden too heavy to bear on his own. Perhaps he shouldn’t have loved her too much.

KOIVI REX BIWA

Beauty is the word for you, no other can do
I found you somewhere, now I don’t know how,
Your smile, it just made that moment explode
I failed in my choice of the right words for you
Doo dobasi wandkii, oh!

Long lasting nights, full with fragrant dreams
Your countenance lighting my imagination
Your voice feels as gentle as the sweetest of petals
I goose bump all over at the sense of your touch
Ape do dobasi wandkii maa!

HON SIMON PENTANU MP
| Facebook

For every day I spend confined in isolation
the flowers outdoor grow and glow more beautiful
and extend nearer and nearer to me

I think they are going to stick it out with me
until the last day when I’m primed and paroled
out of isolation indoors into open sunshine

STEPHANIE ALOIS

She smells of Goroka coffee
in the perfume she wears each morning
What a beautiful way to start a day
Made of strawberry and honey
It’s difficult to resist her charms
Hooked on her explosive personality

A taste of wine in her presence
Spending more time with her
Leads to loving her even more
It’s difficult not to laugh at her jokes
Or her wicked sense of humour
She’ll get you thinking, she never cries

MAJELLA DIULEN SOALILI

A tribute to the Grand Chief
Sir Michael Thomas Somare

In the midst of the battlefield
Stood a Hero
Who had a heart of Gold and
A mind full of dreams.

He fought without fear.
But with the stoutest
Of weapons: Confidence, Courage
and such great Determination

RAYMOND SIGIMET

The mountain stream is young and sometimes reckless
From a tiny trickle, vexed and irritated, looks for outlet

After the rainbow when the storm rests up on the hills
He rushes down ravines and gullies, his fist full of water

This irate adolescent behind cover of the storm and bush
Surges down knocking and swiping at rocks, soil and roots

KOIVI R BIWA

Once no cries were heard nor bitter tears shed,
This time when ancients and babes mingled calm,
Love and respect were their constant companions,
When no one stood bewildered by enmity or anger

But it happened that the tuneful war cries sounded,
Heard, known, accepted by all far and near,
Wigmen danced fluidly to the beat of the kundu,
Warrior elegance betrayed the combat ahead

Mathias Kauage - Independence celebration 4,  1975  (National Gallery of Australia)

MICHAEL DOM

Bik nem lidasip 

Papa bilong yu 
Emi gat bikpela nem turu
Long olgeta hap ples mi raun
Mi ken i harim ol manmeri 
Litimapim nem bilong em
Taim oli toktok long ol kainkain wok 
Emi bin mekim long en

MICHAEL DOM

Yesterday was International Poetry Day and Papua New Guinea’s unofficial poet laureate, Michael Dom, hauled out his trusted, rusted, almost busted Olivetti typewriter to do justice to the occasion with a salute to Bob Dylan’s renowned 1962 protest song, 'Blowin’ in the Wind' - KJ

How many books may a Maserati buy
Before it rusts in a shed
How many crooks make a government bad
Before it gets through our heads
Yes, and how many times may a prime minister lie
Before we know he's a thief
Those politicians are blowin’ smoke up our arses
They're blowin’ smoke right up our arses

GEMBA RAYMOND DEWANE

Dedicated to Lady Veronica Somare

I could have found a man in a million
But faith has found me millions in a man
I have no idea what was in your mind
I just kept faith in your constant gravity
You raised your country, I raised your family
Sana, now I understand your dream

RAYMOND SIGIMET

I came from my father’s spear 
This spear came down generations
He alone could hold this spear
From his father and father’s father

As a man amongst his people
His spear gave me name and place 
This spear fought during times of war
This spear talked in times of peace

RAYMOND SIGIMET

Once I heard the fire talk
He talked in my lifetime
This grand man in the fire
That coughed and crackled

His voice lit up the dark
While embers danced the night
His voice in the leaping flames
That could be seen from afar

I listened into the night
For I was mesmerised
I put in more tinder wood
And I sat there and listened