While i leave you, Love

A poem as i, Hi'iaka, leave you my Hōpoe

I will sing for you 

only one song 

in my departure

only one promise in this severing 

that leaving
with you behind

will be my truest sign of aloha for you

that nothing 

will ever eclipse the 

the shadow that shakes from this lehua

the way the yellow of it 

stills the chill settling in your blood

you and i never were 

a'ole

we always are 

chose instead of the stillness of past 

the dance found in this foreest

threw every part of these temporary bodies into this home

into this valley 

this crater that grows us 

in every direction

E Ku'uipo,

watch the parts of us as we feather into flowers 

your lips 

how they fold into this soil

how you are every part of this home i love

and fear to leave

watch the way growth happens all around

and how the birth of us turns me to song

turns you to dance

turns us both 

together

forget that i am leaving

forget that there is more beyond the walls of this aina

this ahu

extending into sky 

remember the calm of this movement 

the forevever of this voice 

and know

that i will return

either in body

or in song

so that our dance

shall never end