Poem

Poem by John Enright, a poet living in American Samoa:

Regulators

When you've lived a while within the sound
of surf and mosquitos and swirls of children

between blindingly green ridges of jungle
emitting birds and bird sounds and moving

through the spectrums of saffron and shadow
and squall-closing grays, when the

news become who is pregnant by whom
and why who is leaving the island,

then come to me and talk about your
air-conditioned plans for the regulation of

whatever it is you've been brought here
to set straight by mainland standards.

We'll set up a time line that will most
closely resemble a slowly drifting cloud.