Summer 2014: Poetry

ʻAʻā

by Burky Achilles

for my mother, July 1, 1936 – April 6, 2013
 
It is time for winter swell
to pull back and crest
into one perfect
wave of understanding
between us, the way tide
understands the moon,
the way you knew
when to add more limu
to the poke,
when the first honohono
orchid would bloom.

It is time you told me
about your sister Marilyn,
her years in the institution.
About your red tricycle
circling and circling
the flat driveway
of your childhood home
after the deputy told your mother
that electroshock had cauterized
the wound of your sister’s mind
and stilled her heart.

Time’s puzzle is how to fit
your ocean
into my thimble.
Being not seen and not heard
let me skulk
like a thief around
corners, behind
walls, collecting
enough snippets to set
the razor-straight edges
of your thousand-piece life.

Winter swell honors no time,
gives no quarter to my dog paddle
through undertow,
between the jagged ʻaʻā rocks,
to shore’s sun-bleached sand
where you wait, warm towel in hand
for my shivering body.
It is time to puzzle why
you never swam out to meet
me. Why, when I was the one
being swept under, you,
feet firmly planted
on shore’s warm sand,
were the one who needed
saving.

Poetry Sweet, evocative, haunting: Delight in 19 poems to please every palate.		Prose What does it take to be a woman, sister, mother, child, lover and friend? Share the struggles six non-fiction writers have with these roles.		Artwork Five local artists, a variety of media, and new insights into our world. Enjoy the unique visions of these extraordinary women.		Young Voices Savor the poetry and prose of five talented young authors whose voices you will want to hear again and again.		Contributors Meet the 25 authors and 5 artists whose voices and visions enliven the fifth edition of our journal.

LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR POETRY         Out of Eden by Melanie Green         Under the Tongue by Cindy Stewart-Rinier         it wasn’t the rain by Ann Sinclair         And the King Was in the Counting House by Geraldine Foote         Aurelia Aurita: Moon Jelly by Lois Rosen         What Cape Alava Was Like Then by Linda Strever         ʻAʻā by Burky Achilles         Still Life With Cabbage by Margaret Chula         Mother of the Drowned Child by Penelope Scambly Schott         Summer, When Green Turns by Cindy Stewart-Rinier         Relic by Jennifer Foreman         From the yes column of “is there a god?” checklist by Jennifer Foreman         Binders Full of Women by Shawn Aveningo         Even in February Every Woman Wants to Be a Feast by Claudia Savage         Weddings I Have Ruined by Tanya Jarvik         Thicker Than Water by Claudia Savage         Weekend Wayfarers by Elizabeth Stoessl         Wordscape by Tanya Jarvik         Talking Herself into Onward by Melanie Green PROSE         Tribes by Thea Constantine         Carnage by Heidi Beierle         Owyhee Barbie by Marylynne Diggs         Permeable Divide by Kamala Bremer         Pepper Anderson Meets the Amazon by Linda Ferguson         The Day I Stopped Typing by Kate Comings ART         Brooke by Oriana Lewton-Leopold         Elizabeth by Oriana Lewton-Leopold         Silence Considered by Carole Murphy         The Egg Sisters by Carole Murphy         Garden Gate by Koka Filipovic         Purple Shade in the Garden by Koka Filipovic         Untitled with a Flamingo by Amy Robinson         It's My Party by Amy Robinson YOUNG VOICES         A Work of Art by Leilani Garcia         What the Bees Did to Me by Colette Au         Things I never said by Molly Benson         Wabi-Sabi by Janet Webster         Foresters by Sophia Mautz CONTRIBUTORS