Stand Strong Ka`u!
An angry storm is blowing,
The smell of earth rising
In rain, rich brown, gold, embedding
Red pain of strategical lies
She bleeds the wooing cries
Of mirrors and beads,
Of money and greed,
Strapping cannons to canoes,
Stand up, Stand up Ka`u!
Yoke your love to her weeping breasts,
Nourisher of generations.
Protect her from Westward thrusts
That hunts,
That takes,
That eats her smell without permission,
That sucks her water of sweet mountain,
That slakes deep with bitter desperation
Spears of wealth and delineation
To Conquest this land of fierce stars,
Of warriors of the land,
Keepers of black sand,
Stand up, children of Keoua, children of Ka`u,
Truce was the weapon that crushed you,
Gunned down in open arms smiling,
She weeps now for her warriors falling,
For water, for land, her children dividing.
In the angry storm blowing,
In the rich earth rising,
In this epic time calling,
Stand strong!
Karen K.L. Espaniola July 21, 2007
Published by Yellow Medicine Review, Winter 2007
