I walked past the Maluhia Cemetery,
Pondering its aged state, where many gravestones
Had worn so much that the names of the buried
Have faded away.
All flowers left there had turned to dust decades
Ago. What remained of these people besides
What might still be below, bones and teeth,
Monuments to death
Not life? Maluhia signifies solemn peace
And stillness in Hawaiian. It is now an irony.
When these graves were interred in the sheltering
Kalihi Vallley
They rested in sacred stillness, but now urban
Life speeds in its daily pace so we barely notice
The site where those forgotten souls lie nameless
In their unmarked tombs.
Which is why I will not trust my legacy
To stones no matter how durable they may be
But to a life lived in a way that is etched
On those I have touched.
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