Maile Pilau

by Stewart Manley

Some things hold, some let go.
Sunlight streams through the hapu‘u,
Warming the cool stillness.

A breeze of reminiscence,
Lasts only to stir forgotten embers,
A time of young dreams.

Gone, but here, with you and me.
In an embrace as loose as the wind,
And as tight as maile pilau.

Stewart Manley is from the Island of Hawai‘i. He teaches law at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His poetry is forthcoming in Queen’s Quarterly.