Afakasi Daughter of the Pacific Islands
I am a bull from the year of the pig
I was born from volcanoes
and scrubbed in the salt of the Pacific,
shaped by the unknown
White clouds from colder weather
pollinated a sultry land
and like seafaring coconuts
my siblings and I were scattered,
transplanted on various soils,
involuntarily grown in alien dirt
emerging with hybrid souls
I have briefly seen the view
of my birth place through the lens
of the woman who raised me, my palagi mother
It is exotic, military
and ripe with sad memories
as metallic as buildings,
as green as Jurassic mountains
The haole colonists cast their wealth
like blooms of an invasive species
eating the islands’ wild hearts and
littering the water as they shred
the commanding and holy waves
Locals break their spines
like bleached coral
Their bruised Aloha spirit
decomposes under the aroma of pikake leis
Kilauea speaks
I am landlocked and homesick
listening fiercely to the voices
that send me alofa,
love from across the ocean
I stare hard at an Afakasi face,
the woman who contracted me into the world
Her black slice-of-a-moon eyes
tell riddles that are safe with me
because they are a hammered tattoo,
malu that I will never be able to read
I am ready for the Siva Samoa
to move my naked feet,
to dance with my sisters,
throw fire with my brothers
and if favored, be received by my ancestors
[TJ Herron is an emerging writer and graduate student in the MA English Creative Writing program at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. Her poems and fiction are an eclectic mix of genres. She is currently working on a collection of creative non-fiction essays that follow her journey of discovering her Pacific Island roots. TJ has published in the program for Lemonade the Lecture, a week-long series at UTC about Beyoncé’s album, and in Clemson University’s literary magazine Chronicle.]