by Amy Barone
Home to chatty mynah birds, you flank
the Old Lahaina Courthouse by the ocean
on an island of sugar cane hills, Hana sunsets,
historic red wood buildings and Ka’anapali Beach.
Stretching nearly two acres with 16 trunks,
cousin to the fig tree, hub for Maui’s
huge Halloween party and costume parade,
you star as stage and shelter for natives and tourists.
A century and a half old, now survivor of brutal wildfires
that charred cars and an enchanting town that I first visited
as a wide-eyed teen on vacation, marveling at your vastness,
that paradise exists in an old whaling village in the USA.
the Old Lahaina Courthouse by the ocean
on an island of sugar cane hills, Hana sunsets,
historic red wood buildings and Ka’anapali Beach.
Stretching nearly two acres with 16 trunks,
cousin to the fig tree, hub for Maui’s
huge Halloween party and costume parade,
you star as stage and shelter for natives and tourists.
A century and a half old, now survivor of brutal wildfires
that charred cars and an enchanting town that I first visited
as a wide-eyed teen on vacation, marveling at your vastness,
that paradise exists in an old whaling village in the USA.
Amy Barone’s poetry collection Defying Extinction was published by Broadstone Books in 2022. New York Quarterly Books published her book We Became Summer. She wrote chapbooks Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway(Foothills Publishing.) Barone belongs to the Poetry Society of America. She lives in New York City.
