this past big rain
I’m here to tell you, dammit
that when it comes pouring down on O’ahu
my roof sometimes leaks a little
oh how the rain drops in to say hello again
as I rush out the pans
a mad dash mop in hand how do you do
and the good bowls and the buckets
on the floors, the beds, the tables, and the chairs
my harsh aloha, capturing each intruding drop
that pain of splatting on metal or clay or imprisoned friends
my suffocating lei of love for them
compaction with their compadres
my hard heart, this torture of stasis
finishing them off with the humiliation
of a Honolulu sewer system one-way tour
Lanning Lee 