A poem from Level 4
Signed, South Auckland
How nice it must be
to pocket applause and special mentions
for contracting Covid-19 in Devonport
and mapping a trail to the Coromandel
oh the paradisical Coromandel
Devonport darling
while South Auckland
signs away deliveries for yoga mats
stocks those cheeky Farro Fresh shelves you panic buy from
swabs the nostrils that sit plump in your leather SUV
for we also wait in long queues
disproving your scuttlebutt
sanitisies the smack talk you leave always
sitting pretty on our shoulders
yet you resign your 'ofa
for a hood you couldn't survive in for 2 secs
g
surely it's a colour-of-our-skin thing right?
because if one is to break down every shade of brown
dig up church genuflectors
keeping safe distance of course
you tiptoe around accountability
for a system that was fraught for us to function within to begin with
look at them!
yes, you!
good job for getting tested!
you aren’t a vaccination priority group though!
no, stay put!
you have a place, yes!
thaaattt'sss not at the top!
sorry?
where's our place?
oh!
where we only feel sorry for you!
never sorry for what we doooo to you!
leading the newshour tonight
we start with what's happening in South Auckland
looookkkk aat theeeem!
headlining
every
single
news
bulletin
because you think South Auckland
needs your well-intentioned, unwelcome
"well those Samoans have it rough"
pity party
that prefaces clinking of the champers
a year ago to the day
of hard work it took to trash us
South Auckland says
what's a sorry without substance
please just
stop treating us different from everyone else
or leave us the fuck alone
tulou
This week's lockdown series around New Zealand began with the Bay of Islands, and then the West Coast. Tomorrow: Southland.
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