Hawaii
Honolulu orange X 4
1. In the citrus aisle of a Honolulu supermarket, it’ll be the tourists and the newcomers who bypass the small display of lumpy, blotchy brown-and-orange fruit in favor of Sunkist’s dyed dry cellulose sponges. The lumpy, blotchy fruits were oranges locally grown, and the experience of eating one of those would have been Keatsian: seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue can burst Joy’s grape against his palate fine.
2. In all the aisles you’ll see some women with shaved heads, habited in gray or brown. Those will be Chinese Buddhist nuns from the convent off Pali Highway, tucked away behind Temple Beth El. It’s painted a brilliant orange.
3. In the parking lot of the Hawaii Kai Safeway, touchingly vulnerable to shopping carts, I sometimes used to see a brilliant orange Lamborghini Murcielago, the one with the doors.
After it ceased coming around, the local newspaper carried a story about it. It turned out to be one of several exotics owned by a family living on Hawaii Loa Ridge —
[pause for effect]
a crime family.
Ages of Enlightenment
Honolulu: the rainy season
Wagner, the rainbow motif from Das Rheingold. Matyas Veer, contrabass trombone.
While you slept, she moved toward you
Zone: light manufacturing
A trip to Kona, 1905
Neon incipit
Light vehicle
Water: the refinery
