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Kaanapali
by Edward J. Carvalho
Hawaii ate
a naked cheerleader
from its concrete
buffet,
a teenager whose nine lives
on a balcony
were an unsteady
footfall more canine
than feline.
Holiday breath left
as unclaimed luggage.
One life vanquished per
every floor she plummeted,
two years at a time
in miles per hour.
There go her
binkys
dimples
pigtails
leotards,
her braces
tampons
beer funnels
threesomes,
her cocooned butterfly kisses.
Hotel guests
saw a smooth
young body drunken
in flight
as a bronze sugar and spice eruption
sacrifice against a backdrop
of luau night sky tinged with lava.
A pretty phoenix
not able to
smile her way out
of this
not able to
land
on all fours.
Edward J. Carvalho is a twice-nominated Pushcart Prize writer (2004 and 2005) whose poetry and critical writing has appeared or is forthcoming in literary journals such as Poesy, In Our Own Voices, Vol. 6, Invisible Insurrection, The Heat City Review, Pitkin in Progress (Goddard College), and Conatus (Western Connecticut State University) among others. He currently is the artist-in-residence with Boston's Ominous Collective performance troupe and is enrolled as an MFA candidate in the Goddard College Creative Writing program with plans for PhD candidacy in the coming months.
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