Coconuts dot the landscape
An intricate shell lei a salu salu around Mama Graon’s crown
Rivers snake like eels slice into Mama Graon’s hip down to the solwota
Tattooing Mama Graon with squiggly shapes through her fine greenery
Meeting the ocean in a soft gentle kiss a c a r e s s
An urgent resounding smash as it pours in the hills
Sediments swept out into the solwota colouring it a steady brown
Killing fish sea creatures and bleaching coral
A cavernous yawn in the ground s t r e t c h i n g for miles
Unfathomable natural phenomenon perched on the Ring of Fire
Mama Graon growls birthing lava stones and ash
Groans deep from Mama Graon’s belly
Groans of a woman in labour
Perhaps Sapai and Maunga are in the depths of it
Birthing proud plumes of ash falling back to earth
Inundating homes gardens pigs chickens homes
Monstrous quaking of the earth destabilizing all we know
A large angry wall of solwota r a c i n g inland
Rearing its serpent-like head poised to strike
People run for the hills
Your children run for the hills
Social media flood with ash-filtered devastation to livestock livelihoods lives
Majijiki and the other gods are f u m i n g
Mama Graon what have we done?
Notes
Mama Graon: Mother Earth
Solwota: saltwater, sea
Sapai and Maunga: two sisters trapped in the depths of the volcano in a creation story on Tanna Island, Vanuatu, about how the Yasur volcano was formed
Majijiki: a demi-god in a creation story from the southern islands of Vanuatu who fished islands out of the ocean
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