(to my wife, nālani
and our 7-month old daughter, kai)
kai cries
from teething--
how do
new parents
comfort a
child in
pain, bullied
in school,
shot by
a drunk
APEC agent?
#justicefor
-kollinelderts--
nālani gently
massages kai's
gums with
her fingers-
how do
we wipe
away tear--
gas and
blood? provide
shelter from
snipers? disarm
occupying armies?
#freepalestine--
nālani sings
to kai
a song
about the
Hawaiian alphabet--
what dreams
will echo
inside detention
centers and
cross teething
borders to
soothe the
thousands of
children atop
la bestia?
#unaccompanied--
nālani rubs
kai's back
warm with
coconut oil--
how do
we hold
violence at
arm's length
when raising
[our] hands
up is
no longer
a universal
sign of
surrender? #black
livesmatter--
kai finally
falls asleep
in nālani's
cradling arms,
skin to
skin against
the news--
when do
we tell
our daughter
there's no
safe place
for us
to breathe #...
Added: Friday, January 16, 2015 / From "Hawai'i Review" special online issue, Write for Ferguson. With special thanks to editors Anjoli Roy and No'u Revilla. Excerpted from the poem "understory." Used with permission.
Craig Santos Perez is a native Chamoru (Chamorro) from the Pacific Island of Guåhan (Guam). He is the co-founder of Ala Press, co-star of the poetry album Undercurrent (2011), and author of three collections of poetry, most recently from unincorporated territory [guma’] (2014), which received the American Book Award. His writing explores themes of indigenous identity, militarism, decolonization, food sovereignty, ecological imperialism, migration, and citizenship. He is an Associate Professor in the English Department, and affiliate faculty with the Center for Pacific Islands Studies and the Indigenous Politics Program at the University of Hawaiʻi, Manoa, where he teaches Pacific literature and creative writing. He was a featured poet at Split This Rock Poetry Festival in 2016.
