Poem of the Day

Hanauma Bay, Hawaii. Clement family vacation, 1995

Natural Resources

by. Maura Clement

Spring 2009

  

If Dylan Thomas loved with an Irish heart,

I live with a Hawaiian one.

I suppose Irish hearts are made of

A 7 year-old Maura feeds the fishes at Hanauma.

Green hills, ballads of love and dire famine.

Hawaiian hearts are made of coral

Like the world below the surface

Of the undulating water in Hanauma Bay.

Hawaiian hearts live

And breathe salty tears.

Sharp spikes line my heart

Protecting the vacuoles and ventricles,

The life which lives within me,

Beautiful enough to slice a wayward limb.

 

Careful not to touch the reef,

tourists swim around and assume to know me.

Lindsay Sablan, Jeffrey and I snorkeling in the Bay.

My heart is not one entity,

But a colony of identical individuals.

I am an ecosystem,

Can you say that?

Break off a piece of me to take home

With you to Seattle or Salt Lake.

Show all your friends.

Although you have me,

Because you have me,

I am dead.

I belong to the sea turtle and not to you.