& that's how white people appear to da locals
I was raised by my calabash antee,
but I saw my pale sistas get beef for being ha'ole
antee liked to talk story,
she said da locals once welcomed da land of da free wit leis
only to have their last Queen gunned down for cane field money
See, I spent my childhood at Iolani Palace
fingering the bullet holes that still burn
antee tol me about before Pearl Harbor
wen da Islands was seen strategically placed
like dakine pawn in one chessgame.
wen I was a Keiki, my bes fren was Japanee
but our histry books tol us dat she look like da enemy
antee said war is always agains frens
antee told me about before americans discovered travel
dat dey could escape to paradise and be pampered
treat our aina like a trashcan for a week.
I watched tourists my whole life;
turn dey nose up at poi
& shake wit 1/2 naked girls at luaus
dey nevah see da islands
antee tol me bout before highrises blocked Waikiki sunsets
(so dat e'rybudy culd come an see an now only da visitahs can)
you can't put Hawai'i on one pos'cahd, it's in da people you ignore
da people dat call e'rybudy antee, uncle, brudda, sista
it's in da land dey bulldoze for anuddah McDonalds
cuz dey in a rush to get to da shore.
antee tol me bout living off da a'ina
and learning to live from da a'ina
she said dey offered it to da mainland long ago
dut dey didn't have da spirit for understan.
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