(Kauai)
The other cheek
of the Earth
is pock-marked with civilization
too
on the other side
there are the same
craters we have made
everywhere
the signs
and labels
to contain everything we have conquered
and destroyed
cultures broken
into pieces
then pushed
with bulldozers
into the landfills
of homogeny
where the parched lips
of the earth
once wet volcanic
rivers
have become
the black sand
an ocean between them
between us now
and what we were
before we aimed our guns
at the differences
of what we discovered
from where we came from
from what was familiar
the very things
we ran from
that we have attempted
to recreate
over and over
the volcanoes
are silent now
as though we have stilled them
into submission
by the very force
of our inability to change
and we regard them now
these ancient mountains
these reminders
all around us
of what we have repressed
pushed down
drowned
into long sleep
because
we were
afraid
to let it
make us different
to be open
to how it could
change us
and make us
something richer
than we were.