The Five Senses - Philomena Isitoto

I like the smell of new-ripened oranges;
And newly picked yellow pumpkin;
The sweet smell of roasted pig;
The colourless smell of hot taro;
The passing salt breeze of the sea;
And the scent of flowering shrubs.

What sounds now come into my ears?
The stream, rushing down its rocky wall;
The bumping truck along the rough road;
The groaning of hungry pigs;
Drop, drop, of falling rain on a roof;
And tapping of a bird on a hollow trunk.

 

I love to see the beauty around me:
People in straight lines like marching ants;
The silver moon shining on green leaves,
Making them glassy and silvery;
The glorious sun rising in the early down;
And the calmness of the blue Pacific Ocean.

What's that I feel attacking me?
Only the blazing sun that strikes my body.
The bite of a black ant surprises me;
Sharpness of roughest rock hurts my feet;
The softness of bed sends me to sleep -
But the stinging mosquito wakes me.
 

It's my taste which I rely on:
The sweetness of taro satisfies me;
Starchy kaukau helps my and
The protein of fishes brings saliva to my mouth;
Greasy pig is horrible on my tongue;
But coconut liquid quenches my thirst.

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Philomena Isitoto (20th century) Papua New Guinea
Source: Modern Poetry from Papua New Guinea, Volume I, Edited by Nigel Krauth and Elton Brash, Papua Pocket Poets, 1972