ON THE TRAIL TO HANAKAPIAI FALLS


—Kauai, 1979


e hele e hele e hele e waiho
barefoot I crawl into the cave mouth

a warm rain drums on kukui & ti leaves
ferns leaping from breadfruit branches

their fronds spilling spores like teeth
knocked loose from a dog's jaw & woven

into anklets that rattle on the legs of dancers
in heiau Laka * cardinals from Brazil * mangoes

from China * Hawai'i * trade route pearl of the Pacific
Rim's necklace * here on Kauai the black

stones of built walls cocooned in jungle moss
still laddered up the canyon like temple steps

for the ancient ones * kama'aina who once
grew taro in these terraces & watched

wave after wave * come & go * spout & flow
all that contact & cooling * molten & now

impenetrable magic * everything crossroads here
rhyzomes of every continent mix & thrive

exquisite exotics stamped with island vigor
everything jumbled * intertwined

sudden growth * sudden death * time
ancient & ticking * even before the rain

subsides the sun comes out * mud dries
the earth soaking up any trace of wet

two haoles pass the spot where I've stopped
off the trail * their voices float

like lilies on a pond or dragonflies
hovering in the wind's spin * they are

a perfect couple * his eyes arrow ahead
on the path * never veering from point

while she swings behind * her blond ponytail keeping
time to his lead * submerged

in a thicket of green I let them pass
the air humid with ginger & tangled vines

breathing in this strange yet somehow
still familiar earth I try to follow

the fluttering amber of a moth as it skips
between the forked trunks of a hala tree

serpent messenger goddess insect
its wings beating almost as fast as my heart

but not as loud as far off the drone of a copter's
blade slashing air * quick the noise pulls

my ears away & I lose it * the moth
the moment alone * the thumping boots of

rotors on the tropic beach air penetrates
even this backwater niche of paradise

I go swimming in shadows * garbled clouds
threaten rain * the wind kicks up sand

in Iran Carter sends Sea Stallions crashing
in the desert * I can see all the straight lines

of the cities rise like missiles & converge
in the sound of engines beating themselves

to death * mass extinctions * the final
millennial apocalypse of techno-wizardry

even for the tree frogs bellowing defiance
there is nowhere to hide * nowhere else

to go * so I move on & further up the trail
round a bend come face to face with

Pele * sheer box canyon nightmare
corporate condominium coconut plantation

solid rock real estate tip of the volcano
as it explodes * cut through to lava

this white-eyed blast-of-mist cascade * trail's
end * the falls

hijacked & made to leap steep cliffs
Mt. Waialeale's swampwater smashes into pools

torturing stone * while I stand there
at the end of the world * helpless * awestruck

listening to the terrorist in my heart
read off a list of impossible demands * impossible

dreams * all the pent-up energy of life
bottled & sold & here broken free

& so at last I kneel at the water's edge
& drink in the champagne of place

this passionfruit nectar of islands we know
even now are too beautiful to be real

art goodtimes
union of street poets
vincent st. john local / colorado plateau / aztlán
kuksu brigade (ret.) / san francisco