Coconut Milk

Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Seventeen

59 Fa‘a Fafine Poem Number Seventeen I had a husband M in Apia who came home after work throwing off his clothes putting on just an ‘ie lavalava so aulelei He cooked dinner fish in coconut milk After dinner we’d sit on low rattan chairs across from each other at the low teak table, candles on the table lighting the room He turned on Radio 2AP, the traditional Samoan music station, to dance a siva nofo, sitting dance, to me He taught me the movements of the taupou, girl chief He made the movements of the manaia, boy chief His hand movements would end up caressing his exposed erection Pull me in and push me away with his gestures Push pull, push pull Back and forth And I’d respond in my dance But we didn’t touch each other all evening Until at some undetermined point we broke the tension and rushed to the next and darkened room to our bed under its fairy net One day my neighbor told me she and her girlfriend would sit at the farthest reach of her orchid garden in the dark smoke a number, sip their wine, and watch my beautiful young husband through our lanai screens dancing naked by candlelight He told me then he always knew when they were watching This was our village Po Ula ...