Going Native



Waikiki Beach
North end.
Coconut oil seeping
from overcooked skin,
she sips her Mai Tai.
Her husband, or paid lover,
slumps beside her,
embarrassed
in his aloha shirt, matching
her blue floral mumu.

His eyes longingly trail
brown-skinned
cellophane-hipped dancers,
cheap ukes strumming
behind them.

'Prostitutes for the tourist trade',
the locals grumble.

Mai Tai spills onto her postcard
as red-tipped fingers, bearing
diamonds big as next year's
pineapple crop, scribble
It's soo fab to go native!


Pris Campbell
Copyright 9/18/2001

Art: 'Creation of an Island' by Dennis McGeary

Music: Gone With the Wind

(Dennis McGeary hails from Hawaii.
He paints beautiful abstracts as well
as landscapes of Hawaii  )

Personal Note:   I lived in Hawaii.
'Gone With the Wind ' is certainly
not a Hawaiian song, but expresses
my fears of what is happening to
one of the last Paradises on earth)

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