Walking Akolea Road

Two cardinals in blue ginger.

Three mynahs on a rock wall.

 

Red cocks crow, compare tailfeathers,

herd their households along the street.

 

Back then, the kids called it the Burma Road.

Sugar cane hid the sky, sweetest when tasseling.

 

Now Mauna Kea shines above pastureland,

and down in the blue harbor, a ship has come in.

 

In a plowed field of bright rust-colored earth

men in woven hats are planting ginger stalks.

 

Flocks of little yellow birds consult in the wild cane. In the sun, the sweet smell of molasses grass.

 

Three horses, two bays and a buckskin

amble down to the fence to be sweet-talked.

 

An old woman is walking her goat on a leash.

A cockatoo and a blue parrot ride on her shoulders.