Matthew Caretti

Always a Second Chance: Of Sinners & Saints in the South Pacific

On the nearly empty flight from Port Vila to Honiara, the young missionary sits alone, head bowed, near the back of the cabin. He is praying, perhaps, for a bounteous harvest of sinners whose inner ears will ring with clarity at the trumpet blast of the angel Moroni. Then there’s Patrick, my guide. A Presbyterian clergyman taking time away from the pulpit to complete his degree in religious studies. He turns down the music. Adjusts again the volume when the program returns to an exegesis of biblical passages on suffering.

harbor view
how the dogs 
emaciate twilight

They seem to come out with the drunks held at bay by the wall around my resthouse. Or perhaps it’s the spirit of the place, maintained as it is by the Melanesian Brotherhood. Besides dogs, alcohol, tobacco and betel nut are banned. Hungry eyes follow as the car enters the compound. As I climb the stairs to the second floor. Just off a polished hardwood balcony facing the sea, my room is clean and modest with a single bed and writing desk. No bible but instead a phone book.

call to prayer
from my wicker chair
missionary song

The sizable group from Australia soon sits in the common room for their evening meal. Folds their hands for grace as I pass through on my way to the shared bathroom, naked save for a threadbare sarong. This white infidel’s nods and smiles are later ignored in favor of those from local islanders, who receive a lively round of testifying along with the leftovers. Yet there is something strangely comforting in this flock’s missionary faith, in their palliative to the pangs of this earthly life. I drift off with it. Rise early. Begin again.

ungodly hour
the soulful snores
of believers

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About the Author

Matthew Caretti has published two books of haibun, Harvesting Stones (2017, Snapshot Press eChapbook Award winner) and Africa, Buddha (2022, Red Moon Press), and a book of haiku, Ukulele Drift (2023, Red Moon Press). His haibun “Deep Water Port” earned a 2023 Touchstone Award for Individual Haibun. He lives and teaches high school English in Pago Pago, American Samoa.

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