To Paradise

A Road

By Arthur Thomas

Some retired civil servant Of some foreign country Marvels at the pamphlets: Swaying palm trees, dancing half-naked girls with stilus, Their breasts defying the warm tropical sun; Long white beaches snaked between evergreen palms and foam-decorated waves; The clear blue sky A picture of happy smiling islands; Smiling native girls With strong bright teeth, Serving bright-coloured drinks To quench a thirst after dipping In the clear blue sea; "Want a coconut?” a bare-breasted Fijian asks, And with agility of a monkey he climbs "No trouble, ma’am. Like Fiji?”

This is not my vision of Paradise.

At a market place an old turbaned Indian Bargains his Suki with a Fijian woman.

A Chinese farmhand weighs his cabbage, As a white woman looks on, “Fifty-sex sense, ma’am.”

A place of different ethnic groups; Struggling for survival.