Love letter to Pōhaku:

Inspired by Noʻukahauʻoli Revilla 

4 to fill the mouth

to stop the hunger

from foaming over

2 for each palm

ʻiliʻili keeping rhythm

craddled between tight fingers

thousands for the ahu

the paia

 – the ala nui

1 million ʻai pōhaku emerging from ʻāina and ocean

protest passed carefully between generations

chewing rocks for water

Warm Welcoming Fire: For America

I cannot write

another name / his body sunken

I cannot stand

the weight, another brown boy is

hanging / I cannot breathe

this generation’s inheritance

the choking stench of violence persists

this accumulated death of the innocent

so instead I watch as we take

up

the pens and signs

throw our hands

up

the voices

and prayer

up

we open

our palms crying

please

don’t shoot

//

count the syllables and cities who home the buried

who mourn the dead and dying

Whose breath is held

Still waiting

for justice

Count the times

We have watched the master’s call for massacre

Held our young and brown closer

Shielding our children from this wildfire

Of slaughter turned acquittal

Remember the young men

Remember America’s promise

Kept secret from their opened hands

Today we light this foundation

that allows for the protection of the killing

and the dishonor of the dying

we burn with the skin and bones of our children

black

dead

but not forgotten

begging

//

what will change this country

if not a young man

shot porous

his open palms’

broken promise

his burial’s

warm welcoming fire

//

ʻĀpuakenui

ʻĀpuakenui is licking her lips across Koʻolau’s spine

And I watch as their Uhi falls down her curves and floods the muliwai

ʻĀpuakenui is tracing her fingers across the open shell of a crowning tsunami

And I am a recollection dissolving

Trying to (re)member the way you and I once shaped moana

ʻĀpuakenui is flooding light into the breeching bay of Heʻeia

Catching Oama between the webs of her toes

And I am holding my ea at the base of this Manawa

Waiting for your ʻŌpihi lips to bring me home

ʻĀpuakenui is shaking the ʻōpua free from her seaweed hair

Shaping sky for her promiscuous arc

And I am two palms opened to akua

Trying to catch the iʻa that fall from her scalp

ʻĀpuakenui is crying

Waling for a lover who wont return

And I am wet with longing for you

E kuʻu hoa ʻōpua o Hōpoe,

            Not even all this beauty

Shedding itself around me

misting this palapalā

Can distract from my longing for your lips

Sweet like the ʻiwi of ʻōpihi

After the tongues first taste

To Wet your scales: NOtes on missing you from Lānaʻi

To Wet your Scales: Notes on Missing you from Lānaʻi

Pressing my lips together

I remember your shedding skin

The way your scales clatter as they fall to the floor around us

I pull you

Gently with one hand

Tighten my wrist around your waist

I want to inhale these pieces before they fall

Before the new body is covered and dazzling around you

As you shed

Yesterdays falling from your body

Like water dripping off cold wax

You remind me

To love a moʻo wahine

One must always be prepared to shift

And take shape

I am not so flexible

So I hang on

Tight

Hoping not to be left behind

My fire dries you

Iridescent flakes, the shape of un-kept promises shake and fall to our feet

The closer I come

The more

You dance into new shell,

Body

And I wonder

How to touch you

And not evaporate your wet

To pull you inside of me

And not take

But build

Thick Love

The first night we kissed

I found myself split in two

1.

I am the skeleton of a woman who has never been loved

Right

I am a trusting heart in the shaky hands of sirens

I am love so vast is overcomes

It supernovas

And crashes into itself

I am

Here

But she

Is gone

And I know what alone is

I know a night so black

It speaks

I know a darkness so thick

It sings

I am the shed skin of a wolf

Howling at the moon marked at your door

Looking for her body

Looking for a way to hold

Again

2.

I cannot stop looking at the creases in your palms

With my eyes closed

I can feel the way they leave lines on my arms

Hips

Back

You

Mapping me with your every move

Show the places to be loved

Point out the potential

Here I come hurling myself in your direction

breaking my body into a thousands crashing waves at your ankles

you like the way  my water crashes over you

I thought that meant I could stay

Could be held

Tight

3.

iʻve been trying to find a way to bring these two bodies back together

been feeling like something significant was lost in the shatter

Most nights

I lie Awake

Wondering

How to steal the night from your hair

Just a piece of the darkness

To cover my body

To feel like I might still belong to something that will wrap its whole self around me

Its been so long since you’ve been here

And so long

Since I’ve believed you were coming back