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Wailani after years of spewing red
the volcano pauses
days are clear as white glass now
nights as blue glass now
the moon streams over the mountain
with a million searchlights
confusing roosters
announcing dawn
praise
green curling leaf,
the storm boiled harbor
praise
rolling folds of lava, seabird's lift,
white wave cresting onto sand
praise
palm frond's scissored whisper,
brine winds flagging sea trees
praise
the sun's half yolk
descending into sea
Wailani, mother of milk
in the gentian sky
rolling over the hills
of the bulls and bears
in morning's moisture and mist
tell me your story, the lie
of the land leaves the lips
smooth as air, like trumpets on high
ringing out in awe as am I
at the numbers of your beauty.
(if the air that molds your shape
would mold our shape together)
I am older now
that once was young
sly now once dumb
listen now that talked
walk that crawled
know man is beast
but beast not man,
that eyes are for looking
not believing, and
the heart is for pumping blood
sea has bones and skin
eyes and ears, blood and veins,
like a white capped bird in a doorless cage
its soul moves freely in and out
O to fly free beyond bright clouds
lifted by light brighter than light,
to stand blinded before the last light
time halted, all events visible
as one moment
whose sum demands more light,
light upon light upon light
first dawn floods my vision, birds erupt
as if blessed without memory
this day to them never seen before
majestic and unexplainable,
in morning they marvel at light
they forget each day in night
then light comes again
a marvel never seen
a mystery whose response is song
a reason to sing.
Wailani I am dancing in the light now
the town
a folded flower,
sleeps.
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