by Joe Balaz
Kamuela Kim’s
great-grandparents
wuz immigrant workers
in da sugarcane fields
but dat wuz da extent
of her humility.
She wuz da owner
of wun ritzy Honolulu restaurant
and her Cadillac
wuz painted bright ruby red. Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
By Ndaba Sibanda
Ever since his appointment to the lofty position of defense minister, he seemed to be gripped by some phobia. Some residents claimed the irrational fear stemmed from the possibility that he did not know what he was expected to do. Others thought that he was a lucky coward who found himself having to oversee a strategic security portfolio which he did not deserve or understand. Continue reading
Filed under Fiction
by Bénédicte Kusendila
The sheets hung out to sweet perfection,
the bed covered by a quilt of hearts.
It is okay to be girly again,
to foreshow what I want.
The drunken dance of welcoming tourists;
they’re already my friends. The psalm of
the classy suit shouting, “I don’t know! I don’t know!”
in the street, in his mobile phone. Continue reading
Filed under Poetry
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. Continue reading
By Payton Cianfarano
Two-hundred-forty-seven hours ago you stopped talking. I should have known then that something was wrong, but this was the fourth time in one-hundred-sixty-eight hours that someone had warned me you were going to stop breathing. After the third time I stopped worrying.
Two-hundred-forty-four hours ago I heard my mom crying, a sign that I should find my way to where she was and see what was going on. I found her wrapping herself around you so tightly that I’m surprised what you had left of a body didn’t break.
Filed under Nonfiction
Hawaii Pacific Review 