by Ann Howells
November,
moon of falling cold,
ice blighted, snow infested,
overcast sky tightened down—
fierce and oppressive—
as earth pulls cold around her. Continue reading
Author Archives: hipacificreview
Ice and Regret
Filed under Poetry
Tiger Swallowtail
by Lisa Roullard
You arrived: leaf-like, designed—
black sparked across yellow.
A study in thin.
One black tail broken off.
Abdomen crumpled
like tea-stained paper. Continue reading
The Pharmacist Malgre Lui
by Gay Baines
It all started with a little argument he had with his mother, coming out of a larger, more important argument with his father.
His father wanted him to be a scientist. “Something practical.” But Jesus liked words: English lit, writing, acting. Especially acting. He would be the next Raul Julia. He imagined himself playing Romeo, Macbeth, Hamlet, Lear. He would show the Anglos how great a Latino actor could be. Continue reading
Snow Holds
by Anastasia Stelse
Because I am visiting home,
I shovel snow
pregnant with more
than the average moisture
as it whites out the world,
houses merely mountains,
houses the peaks of Swiss Alps
where lies a castle carved
from so much ice—a glacier Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
A Child Speaks to Libokra
by Jacquelyn Markham
A myth on the Bikini Atoll, claims that Libokra, an evil female spirit, once lived in the southern Marshalls where Rongerik was originally located. She stole the atoll, hid it among the northern islands, and attempted to settle at Bikini, but was driven off by Orijabato, a benevolent male spirit who resided there and guarded the Bikinians. The elders say Libokra fled and everywhere she visited, fish became poisoned and the crops declined. Her body, cast into the lagoon, poisoned the fish that since then make people sick when eaten.
—R. Kiste, The Bikinians
Libokra, my father said it was you
that came to Bikini before the people had to leave
and that Orijabato drove you off
because you were evil
Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
Hawaii Pacific Review 