I Whisper Sweet Aloha

Here’s my draft for today Sunday 04.28.19.

I Whisper Sweet Aloha

Today there are 1.5 million State residents
residing for the most part on the island of O`ahu,
employed primarily in the tourism/service industry

I remember two-way traffic on Kalākaua Avenue
how a trip to Waikīkī seemed like a family vacation
how we’d wait on the airport field to welcome friends

My father carried a large knife in the car trunk
so we could stop to cut sugarcane to suck on
when we drove through endless waving fields

When I was born, five hundred thousand
people lived in Hawai`i, scattered across seven islands
shimmering in the middle of the Pacific Ocean

Back then, a huge metal pineapple perched atop
a high pedestal, stood towering over Iwilei
pondering, perhaps, the question of immortality