Sage Uʻilani Takehiro

ʻĀina Poe

An alien’s memoir of earthly heavens

8.

Pō is an empty belly 
bruised and burned 
from giving birth. 
She inhales Lonomākua mornings, 
scratches her bird lover’s eyes 
and feeds him her body 
built by bugs and maggots. 

7.

Scars of broken earth 
contract and conflict
only to be married 
by the dripping roots 
of a lehua seed. 

6.

‘Aʻaliʻi stands in its cloak 
of feathered rain, leans 
into the wind that carries scudding 
clouds under my father’s feet. 
It tickles, he twitches, rolls over, 
and goes back to sleep.

5.

Old owls sweep shooting 
star dust sprinkled from the sky, 
sucked into the fishnets of Kanaloa, 
swallowed by the trenches 
of Papanuihānaumoku and fed 
to Pele, who spit it back out because
that processed stardust tastes 
like Wākea’s feet.

4.

She like fish, she tell. 
But Nāmaka won’t share 
so she eats with her brother instead. 
When this shark was born a boy, 
his fin became a line of back hair 
spiraled like swirls fingered in wai ‘awa 
and flicked on the spine that connects 
those who were carved before 
to those who will be carved. 

3.

The life of the alien lies in Kahiki. 
My Papalani feeds your Papanuʻu.
Your Moe feeds my Kū. 
We wrap ourselves around 
a breathing heaven that sings 
to the rhythm of limu heart beats.

2.

Tūtū Wahine’s hymns tastes 
like butter frosting and sugar water. 

1.

Fueled by the mouth-moistening 
crunch of paʻakai and the silky 
steam of māmaki leaves, the great, 
grand, godly aunties fasten
the feet above to the feet below,
dance through rigid centuries
and blast off into the night. 

ʻO Sage Uʻilani Takehiro ka māmā o ‘ekolu mau keikikāne. No Hilo mai ʻo ia a e noho nei ʻo ia ma Waikahekahenui, Puna. Ua puka kula ʻo ia mai ke kula kiʻekiʻe o Hilo a laila mai ke kula nui o Hawaiʻi ma Mānoa. He kumu moʻolelo Hawaiʻi & Pākīpika ma ke kula kiʻekiʻe o Kamehameha ma Keaʻau. Ua aʻo ʻo Sage iā Makakapu ma ke kula kiʻekiʻe o Kamehameha, akā ma mua o ia wā, ua paʻa ka lāua pilina ʻohana. He kuleana a Sage e ʻike i ka Makakapu ulu mai kona wahi ʻanoʻano i kona wahi hua. E ulu nō. 

Photo by staff