on Oceania

entitled, 1

does the name “Cook” James Cook
as in Captain James Cook that is
sound familiar to you?

no, you say?
how can that be!

he has a monument in his name you see
for the monumental service he has done in 1774
he proudly did vandalize torture butcher and colonize
the natives of Vanuatu Islands of 500 BCE
and whitened them ever so graciously with a new name

The New Hebrides . . .

you get it of course

there was nothing “new” about the host-land
up until that year ambushed it mercilessly
then . . . there were no more
the same as they were before

the white legacy . . .

isn’t it just grand?

entitled, 2

Kudos to the British!
they worked also 19^th century
to their advantage
they took home the bounty
yet once again

the poor unknowing Spanish!

a rushed glimpse of the islands
did not suffice to make them stay

Alas!

they thus failed to discover
the land’s richness in phosphate
mined by the islanders
profits fed-exed to the Commonwealth

entitled, 3

there once was an island called “Nauru”
1,400 people lived on it in peace
they spoke their native tongue
they had their native culture
phosphate was in abundance . . .

the year was 1843 then
45 years later
only 900 survived
together with their phosphate

their language and culture?

out the window they went . . .

© hülya n. yılmaz, June 14, 2018

[Published by Inner Child Press International in the July issue of the fifth volume of The Year of the Poet]