This island has felt many griefs

Blood flowing in generations past

The sacred valley of Iao

The battle of Olawalu

Blood red Wai

sacred bones buried deep in the hillsides

But this grief is new

Modern

Instead it is ash

Homes leveled

Businesses gone

Artwork lost

Human remains unclaimed

Human remains not found

Burned out cars

The smell of smoke and despair

The loss as big as the Pacific

Tears and chants

Songs and sorrow

Blistering memories of what is lost

Lahaina burns in our memory

Forever

It too will become sacred ground

Just like Iao and Haleakala

The West Maui Mountains

stand in reverence

The story will be told in hula

The sadness will be generational

encoded in DNA

Life goes on

As the dead are buried

mourned and celebrated

 

One step forward

Rebuilding what was lost

 

An island grieving

Within the volcanic rock

and the honeycreepers song

The ocean breaks

Hopelessness will dissipate

But the change

as palpable as when the Islands

were stolen

And land sacrificed

This grief is internal

This grief belongs to Hawaii

This grief will not go away.

This grief is Maui