Sunday, October 12, 2014

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