Kahahiaka

by M.G. Martin

I telling
All the tings you going see
Waking under hala trees
Last night’s ants finshing
Up an ʻōpala feast

The Kīpahulu sea beyond the ʻaʻā
One conflation of liquid blue cotton
Candy and da sparkle kine Colgate
From small kid time

Aloha kakahiaka
I telling
All the tings you going see
Waking under hala trees
Reading Bamboo Ridge &
Pounding down cold brew
Two ʻIwa scanning
The slopes of Haleakalā

It is morning
Which is a good ting
The papaya is almost ripe
It’s easy for kick back
When the tall grass
Taller than you
I telling
All the tings you going see
Waking under hala trees

Something about new beginnings
& dead red crabs like installations
In the ʻaʻā
& standing on top the last patch
Of sea grass
Before the naupaka kahakai
Crawls into the jagged onyx
It is morning
Begin

M.G. Martin is the author of One For None (Ink, 2010). His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Powderkeg, Juked, iO, ZYZZYVA, Sink Review, PANK, and from Greying Ghost Press. A 2018 W.S. Merwin Creative Teaching Fellow, he teaches middle school English and lives on Maui with the poet, Tess Patalano and the dog, Ihu.