Local Poet Shares Recent Works

By Billy Howl-Sinnard

aina

it's time

to look at the good

the locals

people with aloha

say it's all good

all roads

take you there

brah whether you

willin' not

don't matter

you a son

of the four worlds

you got relatives

earthbound

swimming

and free

until world

shake again

enjoy every minute

Hawaii Nei

for Iz

Perched atop his belly,

the ukelele was a bright bird

singing, petted and preened

in enormous hands.

Fingers the size of logs

felled for outriggers

rode the strings

like koa longboards

poised on the waves

at Makaha.

A boy's bashful honesty

spoke of Hawaii nei, childhood,

and love for his parents.

A mother from Ni'ihau.

A disillusioned father,

who worked lifelong

at Pearl Harbor, died

of a shipwrecked heart.

He visited in a dream

to warn of the perils

in the ha'oles' ways.

Take another look, son,

before it's too late,

at where you're going.

A 700 lb. man-child's

sweet island voice,

like trade winds, charmed

the breathless world.