Indigent Riches

Silent and browned, she stands in the mid-day sun,

Watching harbor traffic bustle.

Sporting polished white and blue, uniformed strangers scuttle forth;

"Man, we've been on that ship too long!"

Pieces of worthless pottery and island baubles,

Priceless someday to one loved,

Are exchanged eagerly for coins and tokens.

Amongst their joyful shouts of restlessness,

She speaks only her tribal language.

They are all foreigners,

Yet she knows each one only too well.

The bold one approaches her,

A shyer one follows in silence,

Looking to the ground.

She knows every one.

Hiding their military marks in a beaded bag

Worn around her once-youthful neck,

She motions them to follow with a weathered and proud hand.

Her daughters have been taught well;

Starvation is postponed another day.