“So what da buggah said?” Rudy the barber asks me. “Some bullshit about Denise and Chris.” I’m waiting for a haircut. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Christopher Andaya enter. He’s dark, looks real Hawaiian. “Chris, whas’up?” Suddenly he pulls a knife, comes at me. I grab my gun inside my jacket…

Hanau ka Uku-koʻakʻ’a Hanau kana, he ʻAkoʻakoʻa, puka Born the coral polyp Born of him a coral colony emerged From the Kumulipo The Kumulipo is a Hawaiian creation chant composed by Hawaiian priests in the eighteenth century that includes a genealogy connecting Hawaiians to a royal ancestor’s cosmic beginnings. The polyp is the first animal…

Ho las’ night me and Aunty went Wo Fat and order honeymoon shrimp. What’s dat? Dey take one broccoli, you like broccoli eh? And den dey make one slit in da shrimp and poke da stem part thru da shrimp. Honeymoon shrimp. Was mo bettah den my own honeymoon. Hee, hee. What’s da honeymoon part?…

When I think of painting you, I think of dust and roses tossed into a confetti starred night. We should all remain incomplete for someone to apply the next brush stroke or another stanza in a poem.

Each burning moment passing me I longer long for long-lost things Though red-hot fire her ashen cold The north star’s nearness clasped Within her eye and ice A minute interlude Shot between her lives And then the dream train roars I see The come, the here, the go Still searching for that familiar face My…

The homeless man walks barefoot around Kaka’ako with a guitar on his back. He heads down Halekauwila in the art district, past murals by graffiti artists. He spots a narwal sitting by a campfire and stops to warm his hands. He sees a row of samurai, swords drawn, and he bows to avoid their blades….