Fresh off da boat

By Samoa Observer 14 March 2017, 12:00AM

by Cedric Mamoe

 

Verse One

The strangers came knocking, saying 

trick-a-tree

My little brother went to the kitchen

Dished out two bowls of cocoa-rice

Came back and gave it to them

Their eyes wide open – surprised? Overwhelmed?

Trick-or-treat? This is definitely a f.o.b. trick

 

The next year we knew it is call Halloween

We asked our parents for money to buy lollies

My mum said, “Why buy lollies for strangers?”

I can’t remember what my dad said

At the end we couldn’t afford lollies

So my little sister made a neat sign

Stuck it up the front door

Saying, 

We come from Samoa, we don’t do Halloween

 

The next year we got lollies

We bought them ourselves

My parents didn’t mind

If we gave them away to strangers

We bought chocolate lollies

We thought we’d taste some first

In case a stranger gets poisoned

We did intend to leave some for the strangers, but

…So my sister made another neat sign

Stuck it up the front door

From Samoa, we don’t do Halloween

Wished we’d had cocoa-rice for a back-up

 

Verse One

Mum bought grandma a cell-phone

Mum kept ringing her for weeks

Grandma wouldn’t answer

Until uncle called and said

“Grandma turns it off to save power”

 

It must’ve been a good two minutes

We haven’t crashed or collided yet…

Until someone had the guts to tell dad

“Dad, this is New Zealand…

We’re on the wrong side of the road”

 

We anticipated our first human winter

We’ve seen it in the movies

And we always like cold ice-cream

But winter…that was different

We were cuddling hot water-bottles in our sleep

 

We didn’t go walkabouts on Saturdays

Uncle did that once and it wasn’t funny

He went one morning to buy milk

Came back late afternoon – tired and confuse

He said, “Got lost, all the houses and roads look the same”



 


By Samoa Observer 14 March 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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