Analysis of Waikīkī Returns
I do not have any memories of Waikīkī ever being like this
not even in my father’s stories was she so utterly alone.
No sunburnt tourists, no convertibles on Kalākaua Ave.
not even a leathery beach boy to survey the shoreline.
Waikiki remembers though
her long curved neck of white sand anchoring
empty hotels offers herself up to lapping little waves
rushing forward then pulling back again and again.
Silver flashes of halalū close to the shoreline
hundreds pulsing instinctively forming an arrow
then bursting into a corona, doubling back with black
eyes and thin fins twisting like the lie
of a skilled lover, dazzling. The old rock wall under
the newly paved walkway jutting out past the reef
so clear I can see the outlines of my brother and I
timing the crash of waves, holding hands as we jump
from the ledge over the white spray
the sucking boom as our bodies
break the surface while unseen watery hands
push us back up. Perhaps those same hands tickling
the belly of that honu, its green-gray shell ascending.
Covid has managed the unimaginable, has returned
Waikīkī to herself. Is it wrong to be so grateful?
I share this early morning quiet with a lone fisherman casting
near the transplanted kukui nut trees which have no business
being there. The thin nylon line invisible against
the slowly brightening sky and I never want anyone to return.
The drumming shoreline, gleam of the gold crucifix against
the fisherman’s chest, salty air on my cheek—
all of it strengthening our way back into the light.
Scheme | XX AB CD XX BC XE XX EX AX XD DX XD XF XF XX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111110100111101011 11001101011110001 1110101001111 11001001110101 010101 0111111100 100110011110101 1010110101001 1010111101 1010010010110 110010010100111 101110101 10110100011110 01011101101 1111101111001 100111101111 10110011 010111010 10101011001 1111011111 0101111111010 1110001000101 1110111111110 1111010101011010 1001011111110 1010111010001 01010010110110101 010111011001 011101111 11110010110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,712 |
Words | 284 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 15 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 41 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 81 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 18 |
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Written on 2022
Submitted by Drone232 on May 19, 2022
Modified on March 19, 2023
- 1:25 min read
- 43 Views
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"Waikīkī Returns" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 15 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/127918/waik%C4%ABk%C4%AB-returns>.
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