"The Dawn Raids" by Cindy Kurukaanga

Chocolate Polynesian brown was beckoned
to the land of the long white cloud
to work in factories, freezing works, docks,
was beckoned to work hard,
send money back to islands of hibiscus and frangipani

But chocolate Polynesian brown got swallowed,
digested in a stomach churning with acid-filled hate
The outcome? That other shade of brown

//

But dawn,
because you covered your eyes with the dark hands of night
batons bashed on doors,
scaring pregnant women, given barely enough time
to dress while dogs spat their barks through bared teeth

But dawn,
Because you hid behind the horizon
torches blazed, blinding,
breaking sleep and families
as parents were taken from screaming kids
to be jailed then charged then sent back to the islands

Dawn,
because you were silent,
because all murmurings were silenced.

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Cindy Kurukaanga called us from Aotearoa, New Zealand.

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