Mai Poina: Aloha

The haole say:

Aloha means goodbye, 

But you and I know better

Instead,

Aloha is the way i say: 

i am always with you, even when you choose to leave

Aloha is the way i say: 

you used to live outside of me

And now, i feel you etched into my every breath

Aloha is the way i say: 

Iʻve pulled mountains out of the sea to bring forth the world you deserve

Because Aloha is the spell i whisper into ever gourd i can find, 

Hoping it calls the right wind to bring you back to me

Aloha is what brings you back to me

Aloha is what i say, 

because it is the only word audacious enough to try to hold you

And aloha reminds me

Thats there is no word for goodbye in our language

Our kupuna have no map for me to understand 

this kind of departure

So instead I say

I love you 

Even when you are walking away

I say, 

I am waiting for the day we are we again

I say

There is a dance between wahine like me and you

Its as natural as the tide’s insistence to rise 

Aloha reminds me: 

I want to speak to you the way our kupuna would

With language pulled out of this dirt, fished from our sea

I want you to know 

What i mean 

When i say: 

We are a moʻolelo i heard long ago but never had the courage to believe 

& today aloha is choosing bravery for me

E kuʻu wahine aloha. 

Eia au e kū nei me ke aloha pau ʻole 

Me he ʻaʻaliʻi kū makani mai la 

ʻaʻohe mea nāna e kūlaʻi 

E hoʻi mai, a moʻolelo nō kāua 

I mea e kono i ka ʻoiaʻiʻo mai kēia pō mai

Mai poina

ʻo ʻoe no kaʻu i upu ai

Mai poina 

ʻo ʻoe nō, he lei mau no kuʻu kino 

Mai poina

A hui pū hou nō kāua

Mai poina

Aloha.