Innocent Still Poem by Leonard Fong Roka

In 1997, I was returning home after school from Arawa High School, when a bunch of wandering PNGDF soldiers met me and my two friends. One of them, a Tolai, looked me and a number of necklaces on my neck and said: ‘Hey, yu marit man? ’ (Hey, are you are married man?) . They all laughed to our intimidated complexion as we fought to prevent tears trickling down our cheeks. After satisfying their need of molesting a trio of neatly uniformed Bougainvillean students they ordered us out of their sight. That’s what evil the country PNG does to us in Bougainville