The Blossoms Cleared Out
The Blossoms Cleared Out
When she was alive
She talked about the good days
Pineapples and sugarcane
Wild and feral
She worked in those fields long ago
As a native of Hawaii
And as a child growing up in paradise
She loved her home
Especially the fruits of her labor and roots
She and her family lived off the land
Fresh vegetables, fruits, and fish
That was the way of life
For three generations her family subsisted
And blossomed off the land
Then the clearing
It started when the Hawaiian Monarchy was taken
The turn of the 20th century turned on the natives
Foreign intrusion brought their apples and oranges
And money, and power
All were looked upon as pesticides by the natives
Everything indigenous to Hawaii was slowly wiped out
The blossoms, pineapple fields, and my mother
It cut at the heart, the bloodlines
Today the walk of life on Oahu is mostly concrete jungle
Sadly
The pineapple fields turned into subdivisions of homes
My mother's family home at the mercy of requisition
Without any compassion or retribution
Sadly
I can surmise to the cheers of the apples and oranges
I remember my mother's final breath
I could see, still, how the clearing welled in her eyes
And can imagine a plume of pesticides in her nightmares
connie pachecho
2/20/23
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