coconut heart

my grandparents

sent my father across the ocean

to learn how to order the numbers in his head

into a white collar career

they valued education

& knew he could make it

in an eggshell system not designed for coconut husk

he traded talo for potato

tongan for english

& ngatu for plain cloth

when we go to the markets

he reverts to the tongan boy he used to be

caresses fresh coconuts

               & laments that the supermarkets here only sell stale ones

he wears floral shirts and a mate ma’a tonga cap

               haggles in a language he never taught me

then tells sea salt stories on the drive home

he has lived in a landlocked city for over thirty years

but his blood flows in time with the ocean

he exhales every time a wave hits the shore

& so my heart is bounded in a coconut shell

i bought for 50 cents at the otara markets

Rhegan Tu’akoi

Rhegan Tu'akoi is a Tongan Pākehā and is currently doing her honours in English. She only ever meant to write for a password-protected document, but has previously appeared in Oscen, Mayhem Literary Journal and Ia Literary Journal.

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