Poem: Love letter to Hawai'i, Puerto Rico, and Hong Kong | Sojourners

Poem: Love letter to Hawai'i, Puerto Rico, and Hong Kong

Members of the theatre group Papel Machete perform during a protest calling for the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rossello in front of La Fortaleza in San Juan, Puerto Rico. July 21, 2019. REUTERS/Gabriella N. Baez
To the heights of Mauna Kea
To the barrios of Viejo San Juan
To the streets of Admiralty and all over Hong Kong
 
While my body is so far
My heart is so close

To you

I feel the earth beneath my feet

The land that joins us dear

I feel the summer rain upon my skin

The water from the same deep sea

I feel the warmth of the winds
The air from your lungs

To you

Aloha hola lei hou
 
You who were
Taken and raped and robbed
By haoles, gringos, and gwai lous
You tempest-tossed and
Yearning to breathe
Free

The land who is our mother
Opens her mouth to receive
Abel's blood, it cries out

The water that gives life mixes
With the blood and the tears
From the gas, the bullets

The sky above our spirits
Fills with smoke and fear
And the flames of resistance

With the ancestors
The stones that have been here
Before will be here after
All of the children

Send them back
Send them back to where
They came
From


Exorcise the demons
Red, White, and Blue
Let them quake
As the earth stands firm

Make them stampede into the sea
The voice of the dispossessed
Breaking loose all chains
My name is Legion
For we are many