It Is What It Is

In a Honolulu souvenir shop,
I consider if I could wear
this phrase on my chest.

A starving cat at Ala Moana beach
sunning herself on a piling rock:
how to be kind to her?

How to be kind to the janitor
cleaning the public toilet?
Or the brat who cuts ahead in line?

Heat congeals into storm.
Pink lightning flashes
before roar-and-pour.

A CD of ukelele songs plays
against the thrum of chilling AC:
a medley of money and mahalo.

It is what it is.
How to be kind to the lightning?

Published in The Ocotillo Review