Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Three November-December 2024
Aotearoa Poets and Writers Special Edition
Blue-tooth thing, poem by Daren Kamali.
Blue-Tooth-thing
For Viti
I only heard of Bluetooth as hot spot –
To share mobile data.
Bluetooth-thing is a thing –
A wordplay for needle sharing –
Blood extraction and Transmission –
From one person to another –
Shooting crystal meth – to get high.
Methamphetamine pandemic –
On the rise –
In the Isles of Smiles
Now Isles of crime and sickness.
Our island faces –
A rapid spread of HIV and AIDS –
Highest in Asia-Pacific.
Syringes and needles –
Found on streets –
In community centres and village gardens.
Outside parliament grounds –
They shoot-up –
Into the arms of lost ones –
Smile on their faces with vacant eyes –
No one home.
An island nation filled with zombies.
Their love is not for each other –
It is for this horrific drug –
Encouraged by elders –
Pushed by parents.
Committed to theft, rape and murder –
All suffering together from mental health –
The new norm is to inject till death –
They can’t help themselves.
10-11-12 year olds – dying –
Women’s minds frying –
Turning tricks to get that next fix –
They will do anything, and I mean anything.
Men – smashing down doors –
Snatching our kids –
Loitering the streets –
With nothing to eat.
Their sermons so profound –
Even in churches they can be found –
Choir of fallen angels’ voices echoes –
From the underground.
A situation so dire –
The United Nations respond –
To an urgent call for help –
In Oceania’s crossroads.
Isa lei noqu Viti –
You’re like a disobedient child –
Beaten to the pulp –
Dragging yourself through the mud.
Suva looks so sick and tired –
Old and worn –
Your people are torn –
Between reality and a dark place.
It’s like you don’t have a mother –
You’re not part of the human race –
One pandemic – after another –
Nor a father to guide you through –
The gates of hope.
What a struggle to see you suffer.
We must work together to acknowledge this topic –
To rid ourselves of this great evil –
That has over-shadowed the tropics.
Work together to dig ourselves out –
Of this bottomless pit –
To get rid of dealers trafficking P from overseas –
Pushing Ice to our off springs.
Rid ourselves of this Blue Tooth-thing –
Contaminating our youths’ veins.
We must rebuild our young bodies –
Get rid of this Bluetooth-thing –
Clear our minds and revitalize our children’s brains –
Rebuild love and compassion into this nation again.
To re-educate our people on the effects of crack –
Knowing that HIV and AIDS can be cured –
And to realize that our Pacific nation –
Need to get back on track –
To the old way –
The way the world should be.
© Daren Kamali
‘DKpoet’ or Daren Kamali is a multidisciplinary artist/poet and musician of 25 years in AotearoaNZ and overseas. Fijian – Wallis – Futunan – Samoan – Scottish. He has Viti (Fiji) and Moana Nui a Kiwa at the heart of all his writing and creations.
“This performance poem, Blue Tooth-thing is close to my heart, drawn from recent visits home to Viti and experiencing firsthand the effects of drug consumption and methods of injecting and transferring blood with Crystal Meth which is a damaging rising pandemic and killer, as a result has caused the highest HIV virus and death rate in Asia-Pacific due to the practice of Bluetooth-thing. I am saddened by what it is doing to my people especially our youth and women. It is and has broken up loving families and communities in a once united society.”