LIVING ALOHA

LIVING ALOHA

On Kauai an average house
costs half a million or more

And half the people and more
still work for a minimum wage

Around a grass shack tenement
broken handles of tired tools
lie buried in lava gravel
and broken hands that held them
hot a cut-rate mainland beer

The wind from the ocean stirs
creaking limbs on a dry lanai

Orchid’s breath still whispering
songs of an old deep joy