LIVING ALOHA
On Kauai an average house
costs half a million or more
And half the people and more
still work for a minimum wage
Around a grass shack tenement
broken handles of tired tools
lie buried in lava gravel
and broken hands that held them
hot a cut-rate mainland beer
The wind from the ocean stirs
creaking limbs on a dry lanai
Orchid’s breath still whispering
songs of an old deep joy