Night in Manoa Valley

This could be our secret topography:
the way the white ginger dared us
to look from grandmother’s porch to see

night in Manoa Valley—Cassiopeia
above the banyan tree, Andromeda
and Cepheus; the milky ribbons

of stars at 21°, and the enormity
of the moon’s tropic flare.
It was night in the Manoa Valley

but we were so young, so unaware
of the fragrant stars freely
blooming along the fence there,

paired indelibly
with night in the Manoa Valley.

Susan Kelly-DeWitt | Mudlark No. 33
Contents | Origins