111. Ke Mo'owahine

At the end of my bed the mo'owahine sits
with long, jet black hair over porcelain skin
and with eyes like obsidian or black lava stone
she waits for me patiently until I awake

In a flurry of dark, misty hurricane smoke
I'm carried away across the great ocean
and touch down in Hawaii in the middle of night
on the banks of a river flanked by shimmering trees

Across broad, flat grey river stones I hop and I step
and find myself entering a massive great hall
filled with nobles relaxing, joking and laughing
but I make way further to a small inner sanctum

And this must be Lohiau husband-to-be
to the Goddess named Pele to be fetched by me
But first I am asked to sing and to dance
and am given a grey pahu carved with cuneiform

Unable to read the writing inscribed
the nobility smile and pronounce the words
and with them I'm singing an ancient old ole
much to the delight of my sister's new groom

98. African Ladies

African ladies now teach me to dance
they hold out their hands and shake their behinds
As demons and spirits of evil come close
they stamp on the ground and kick out with their toes

They laugh and they smile and turn round and round
while their beautiful clothing brushes the ground
They reach and they jump, they duck and they dive
with voices which cut through the fabric of time

So here do I learn another great lesson
taught by majestic women from Africa
Where some people ward off spirits with prayer
these women dance, away all their fears....