Poem: Kuai'an Lay

Kaui’an Lay

Hibiscus flowers around their necks

Fill the air with scents of vanilla 

And orange. Chocolate grows on the backs

Of little trees a bit larger than me.

More rain than anywhere else on this deck

Yet I come away with burns on my feet.

Too warm for frost but they make ice to shuck

And shave with coconut, coffee, pineapple…

So I eat it while I watch Nene ducks

Or pesky parakeets in the sunset

Of Poipu. This is where I will muck

About with a snorkel and watch turtles

Of the sea—swim with one—see exotic

Fish that I’ve only seen at the pet store

Then sit out and burn my feet and my neck

Because sunscreen was missed by my own hand—

Still, burns turn to tans, and rum is schucks

For an evening dinner on the beach

With a fruity drink I drink to my luck

That I’m here where it will never freeze

Instead of home where it seems to stick

To frozen most of the year. No passion 

Fruit, Longon, oranges, coffees an—heck

Paradise doesn’t barter in degrees 

But in February when it’s all muck

I don’t mind a little warm red and red

Dirt, feeling some warm flowers round my neck.

Mahala, Kaua’I, land of chocolate,

Coffee, pineapple, honey, mountain treks

To passionfruit waterfalls and hula

Luau’s in a land where chicken necks

Are regularly risked in crossing roads

And wild boars roam making golf course wrecks.

Perfection isn’t made in tropical breezes

Or arctic freezes but combined in smacks

Of shaved ice flavored however you want.

So we bring home macadamia snacks,

Coffee, chocolate, and rum to recall

Barking Sand beaches, Na Pali trail treks, 

Waterfalls, rainbows, dragons on the bay 

Of Hana lei, and the Lihue back

Puffing the magic of a dragon on

A no-smoking bench, because what the heck?

Everyone needs a getaway to 

Come home and know there is a world to trek,

Beaches and seas to snorkel or just see

While wearing scented flowers ‘round the neck.

February 2023

About This Poem

A Lay is an old French love poem and this is my love poem for Kauai, Hawaii. I play with the idea of a lay, using rhyme like the old French poems did. I also include events and places from Kauai, including Puff the Magic Dragon.