Orencia Sleep (2/10/14)
Remembering Mt.Tantalus, Honolulu, Hawaii
In my Orencia sleep
(IV in the left arm
Blood pressure cuff on the right)
I am on Mt. Tantalus again.
Tantalus, a king, son of Zeus
Father of Pelops and Niobe
Banished to the mountain
For what offenses?
We revel in the secrets of gods.
I am so young ascending
the circular heights of the dead volcano
lush with tropical waters and ancient ferns.
We climb in the 50’s Ford
and stop at ginger grottos.
I jump from the car to pick yellow blossoms
sticky and wet and pungent
in hidden colonies of the winding roadside.
My brother’s buddy, the driver
extols the virtues of a white ginger -
dares me to find them on their tall green stalks,
symmetry flowing to its rizomed roots.
We circle higher until our secret hideout
Park and walk in to the koa bench
at the edge of our world.
We stay until dark and welcome stars
picking out places of Aloha land below:
Kewalo Basin, and Pearl, and Punchbowl.
What was it?
This self-banishment
to a water world of foliage and ginger.
A Freshman at 16
Listening to the intellectual quests and dreams
of a brother and his friend
both Phi Beta Kappas, commissioned officers,
about to leave Paradise.
We journeyed to the top of Tantalus
more than once that year.
A time of transitions:
Losing a big brother to a continent
and our forever seeking the secrets of gods.
Alyce di Palma has published poems in Poetry Magazine, Poetry Digest, Asia Calling, American Haiku, Experiment Press and college literary reviews. Her recent publications include: Miniatures (a Journey to India in Haiku), A Woman’s Way (Monologues on Separation), and Spanish Flamenco Reference Guide.
Remembering Mt.Tantalus, Honolulu, Hawaii
In my Orencia sleep
(IV in the left arm
Blood pressure cuff on the right)
I am on Mt. Tantalus again.
Tantalus, a king, son of Zeus
Father of Pelops and Niobe
Banished to the mountain
For what offenses?
We revel in the secrets of gods.
I am so young ascending
the circular heights of the dead volcano
lush with tropical waters and ancient ferns.
We climb in the 50’s Ford
and stop at ginger grottos.
I jump from the car to pick yellow blossoms
sticky and wet and pungent
in hidden colonies of the winding roadside.
My brother’s buddy, the driver
extols the virtues of a white ginger -
dares me to find them on their tall green stalks,
symmetry flowing to its rizomed roots.
We circle higher until our secret hideout
Park and walk in to the koa bench
at the edge of our world.
We stay until dark and welcome stars
picking out places of Aloha land below:
Kewalo Basin, and Pearl, and Punchbowl.
What was it?
This self-banishment
to a water world of foliage and ginger.
A Freshman at 16
Listening to the intellectual quests and dreams
of a brother and his friend
both Phi Beta Kappas, commissioned officers,
about to leave Paradise.
We journeyed to the top of Tantalus
more than once that year.
A time of transitions:
Losing a big brother to a continent
and our forever seeking the secrets of gods.
Alyce di Palma has published poems in Poetry Magazine, Poetry Digest, Asia Calling, American Haiku, Experiment Press and college literary reviews. Her recent publications include: Miniatures (a Journey to India in Haiku), A Woman’s Way (Monologues on Separation), and Spanish Flamenco Reference Guide.
