hawaiʻi  december 2021

 

 

 

 

“bath time” my daughter says  waddling to the tub

 

 

with her rubber duckies  how do i explain  16,000 gallons

 

 

of jet fuel spilled  from the navy’s underground storage tanks

 

 

built during world war two  directly above an aquifer

 

 

in red hill  once named kapūkaki  [countless lehua blossoms]

 

 

just a few miles from our apartment  “we can’t turn

 

 

on the faucet” i tell her  “the water is sick”

 

 

we wash with a soapy sponge  rinse with bottled water

 

 

oily sheen  diesel fumes  total petroleum

 

 

hydrocarbons  slowly plume through pipelines

 

 

[tph-d 140,000 ppb]  what is national security if the military

 

 

poisons our own wells  “daddy  we have to take care

 

 

of the water” she says  as it flows down the drain

 

 

“it always takes care of us” ola i ka wai