The Tab

“Well do you or don’t you?” she asked He drummed his fingers on the table but said nothing. Staring out … More

One of These Days

“You know me,” he said. “I have a smile for everyone.” His smile, this one to illustrate, seemed to be … More

Direction

What happened to my compassI had it when I was a cub scoutLearning about directionsStuck in a drawer somewhereI hunt … More

This Is Sacred

That flash of light from the lighthouseon the point at Hana Bay servesas a warningand a beckoning beacon The mana … More

Now You Don’t

You were some sort of sleight-of-hand magician,and I still haven’t figured outall of the tricks you pulled, a tributeto the … More

Best Friends

Very much like my fatherI try not to argue with friendsNot because we always agree with thembut because we wonder … More

Dream Burial

When I understood he understoodI answered him with OkayThe blank expression on my faceDisguising my anguishAt his answer of OkayA … More

Out and In

I’m the flower pinned to a party wallI’m the violet that always shrinksI’m hardly the life of anythingIt’s a bit … More

Lesson

Someone far away speaks somethingClutching the eagle-taloned lecternBird of prey perched upon ball of earthMinistering to us down hereLooking downMy … More

Silly Girl?

To fall in love with the first manIn your young life, you meetProtected from the world, you wereAbandoned on a … More

The end of the carnival

The summer of Magic IslandFerris wheel and rollercoasterLoud laughter and faster lightsFading after closing timeStanding in the growing quietWaiting by … More

And More

My parents were good parents, allowing meTo lay the foundations of my literary fixation From an early age when they … More

How the Story Ends

We’re both in the Kupuna Program at UH Mānoa. They allow senior citizens to take classes for free. Now that … More

Confrontation (Part Six)

When Chris reached the field, he noticed a large man, maybe Hawaiian-Portuguese, sitting on the bleachers. He had a whistle … More

Homecoming

The Christmas berry tree where I hung in the crookof the main branch, every night, always after dark, I waited,you … More

Missing

The sides of the mountain are heavily wooded, a palette of greens and browns, but the top is craggy and … More

Circus

As a child he’d attended the circus once, and once only.His parents, he imagined, must have seen it as a … More

To Grow

It was the conversation Mr. and Mrs. Kakesako had dreaded having. Well, the one they’d dreaded having would have been … More

This Old Piano

When I sit down on our piano bench, the piano nearly 60 years old now, I am comfortable enough. I … More

Conduct

We’d sit at stoplights and classical music would playon the public radio station to which she still donated.Again she’d begin … More