Dearest Arabella

Dearest Arabella

 

 

Dearest Arabella

It is not easy to come to an understanding with savages

but with persistence it can be rightly done.

 

As you know, I came to this island

to impart to the natives the truth of our beliefs

and the errors of their own.

 

They were at first sullen, uninviting

as if knowledge brought from so advanced a society

held no value.  This continued for weeks. 

 

Then quite by accident, I one day

wandered into a hut where a dozen or so had gathered

discovering them in a strange kind of play-act

involving the likeness of a human head

vaguely resembling my own

having straw for hair, blue beads in the sockets of the eyes

and cigarettes stuffed in its mouth (my mouth).

They were feeding it titbits and coo-cooing

as to a lover or pet or any creature

you want to seduce or make appear or put at ease.

 

I feared disturbing a scene

so oddly intimate was a sort of violation

what might be called a taboo.

 

But it flashed to me that patient persuasion and reasoning

(along with some smartly designed pamphlets!)

had finally hit the mark.  For they became all smiles

those sugarcoated smiles they have

and they closed in around me, touching me

tenderly, even longingly

lingering in my presence as if to stake a claim

on the ideas to which I had introduced them

to which they were now assenting

in what I’m sure was the best way they knew how.

 

I blush now at how I'm spoiled

lavished with coconut dishes and sweetmeats

chided for being so thin

as they pinch my arm or give my thigh a playful squeeze.

They even forbid me to walk.  In fact they get quite upset

if my feet so much as touch the ground.

Six of their fearsome warriors are stationed outside my hut

barring passage, at the ready to convey me on a palanquin

for a sojourn of even the shortest few steps.

Rarely have I felt so well-served.

There’s to be a great feast tonight, about which there’s lots of excitement.

Can’t wait to see what all the fuss is about.

 

-Yours,

Geoffrey