• Menu

    • Home
    • About Andy
    • Blog
    • Newsletter
    • Donate
    • Voter Information
    • Videos
    • Contact
  • Home
  • About Andy
  • Blog
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Voter Information
  • Videos
  • Contact
Lahaina
August 10, 2023

“Hawaii wildfires burn historic town of Lahaina ‘to the ground’” – BBC

I remember coffee-flavored ice cream at the Royal Scoop,
how it made me long to be old enough to drink espresso

like Dad. I remember stepping off the plane into the sweet
humid air, the tissue-paper feel of the Lei around my neck,

the taxi ride through lush mountains, that first sighting of
water, how the Royal Lahaina was so close to the Pacific

it seemed as if, standing on the balcony of our room, there
was nothing in the world but ocean, royal blue by day and

silver-black by night. In Lahaina I fell in love with books, reading
for hours on those beaches while Dad swam so far out I would

lose sight of him and Mom sunbathed in the pleasant heat.
I can mark my childhood by those trips. The year we watched

the start of the first Gulf War on CNN. The year a fire broke out
in our tower and we all stood around the parking lot at midnight,

shaky and full of adrenaline, as the firefighters battled smoke
the color of obsidian. Those were days of self-absorption, when

it was possible to think of nothing beyond palm fronds and sand,
lūʻau and dinner plans. Then it would be time to fly home to school

and friends, our dog Sleepy, tennis lessons, adolescence, the future.
When I was little, Mom would give me gum to chew so that my ears

would pop as we descended; once, I writhed from an ear infection,
pain heavy as a universe pressing like a diamond into my head. And

I did not know then what scientists at the Mauna Loa Observatory
were coming to know, could not imagine that, sitting with my son

two decades hence, I would read that Lahaina was no more
—that paradise had burned to the ground.

 

(Visited 138 times, 1 visits today)
poetry
Share

Be The Change  / poetry

You might also like

Terminal
September 6, 2023
Anthropocene
June 24, 2023
Free Time
February 26, 2023

Leave A Reply


Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Search

  • Popular Posts

    • The Problem With the Proverb About Teaching a Man to Fish
    • Template Letters to Send the Board of Governors of the USPS
    • The Problem With DEI
    • The Dark Knight and Me: an Essay
    • Questions On Nike, Colin Kaepernick, and Corporate…
  • Recent Posts

    • Terminal
    • Paradise Burns
    • Lahaina
    • Anthropocene
    • The Easy Things in Climate Aren’t That Easy—or Enough
  • Blog Categories

    • America on the Brink
    • Be The Change
    • book review
    • brown
    • Business
    • Capital Good Fund
    • Certitude
    • Cycling
    • environment
    • featured
    • Huffington Post
    • micro credit
    • movie reviews
    • Musings
    • News
    • philosophy
    • poetry
    • Politics
    • Pragmatic Idealsim
    • Prose
    • Renewable Energy
    • Thesis
    • travel
    • TreeHugger Job
    • Uncategorized
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletter

    Check out my newsletter, Be The Change

    Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.



  • Get In Touch

    Contact Andy
  • My Goal

    My goal is to foster an economy that alleviates poverty, provides meaningful, sustainable and just jobs, and protects and restores the environment.
  • Sign Up!


© Copyright Andy Posner | Site design by RI Web Gurus