When we tell - Loa Niumeitolu

I know English was brought
by White people to our country.
But when WE speak it,
when we slur that language like sinews
of vine floss extracting our teeth,
grind it with coral and ironwood in our mouths,
When WE tell of the gritty taste
we've got to have a Tongan way
of doing it.

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Loa Niumeitolu (born 1970) Tonga
Source: Whetu Moana: An Anthology of Polynesian Poetry, selected by Robert Sullivan, Auckland University Press, 2013