From “understory”
for my pregnant wife, nālani, during her second trimester
nālani and
i walk
to our
small community
garden plot
in mānoa —
the seed
packets in
my pocket
sound like
a baby’s
toy rattle —
when do
they spray
glyphosate along
the sidewalks?
from kunia
to waimea,
fifty thousand
acres of
gmo fields —
how will
open air
pesticide drift
affect our
unborn daughter,
whose nerve
endings are
just beginning
to root? —
we plant
seeds in
rows, soil
gathers under
our fingernails —
syngenta, dupont,
dow, pioneer,
basf, monsanto
$240 million
seed sector —
corn for
cattle feed
and syrup —
runoff turns
[our] streams
red — poisons
lo‘i — 50,000
heart sea
urchins die off —
what will
our daughter
be able
to plant
in this
paradise of
fugitive dust —
Source: Poetry (January 2016)