Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HAPA - HAOLE, by BIM MELGAARD


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HAPA - HAOLE, by                    
First Line: I am a half-caste, young but unwanted
Last Line: Go with hibiscus blooms red in my hair.
Subject(s): Love - Cultural Differences; Racism; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry


I am a half-caste, young but unwanted
By one who but yesterday showed me the height
Ardor can reach. He was fierce as the kona
With eyes lani blue and skin water white.

Today he has left me, left me alone with
Only the dark sand, the deep beating sea
Glittering to foam where coral fringes
The reef that divides my dear love from me.

If I wait here while a thin moon wanders
Over the warm ground where we two have lain,
If I pray all the night, crying his love name,
Perhaps he will hear, and return again ...

I have beaten the sand as roaring water
Pounds the white coral beyond the reef;
I have moaned with the sea; the outgoing tide
Carries as freight all a half-caste's grief.

The star-cross hangs low; the blue night is warm;
I'm tired of sorrow. One finds me fair;
He is my color. I'll rouse him from sleeping;
Go with hibiscus blooms red in my hair.





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