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