He ha’awina ka’u i ka pō nei (I had a dream last night)

Where the world of aloha I’d known
For most of my life fell away
Pulled out from under me, the nasty trick turning me
Around and around, a crazy top searching for control
Spinning dizzy and stumbling to my knees
Tossed into a blank opaque, like a canvas ready to paint
And I found myself stooped head down
Only aware of the angry sounds of men
Not a single face to anchor me in my familiar place
The voices crashing at aloha with word swords
Lunged at it to hit, all hot silver lighting slashing
I could hear as I floated saddened in a vast nothingness of no sight
Reminding me I’d heard that even bad actors learn stage combat
To make their fights look real as blood about to be drawn
Limbs to be hacked by these poor players
Their strutting and striking intent to change only for change sake
To keep up their flailing fearsomeness because
They cared nothing about anything but staging the fight
“Their bad faith violence brought nearly to bare
Their seething venom threatening the world I knew
Their parts learned in back alleys hiding
Whispered words of tyranny and racial cleansing
These hidden faces suddenly becoming clear to me, gasping me home
Tossing me awake to the surprising dream
That my world of aloha would come back to me
And I looked out the window at paradise’s curtain going up
A picture will be painted of peace and love