This poem is about the differences I saw from the time of my first visit to Kauai in 2008, to my most recent one, earlier this year. Gone were miles of sugar cane fields. Left behind was fertile farmland just idly and wasting away and now left barren. Riding along the highway from Kauai’s west side to the island’s center of activity in Lihue, the idea of this poem, written as I imagine a local might perceive things, came into being.
Upon open fields, where the sugar cane grew
Dust plumes now twirl, settle, to once again renew
No more cane, none more to be seen
Now field after field, sadly stripped away clean
For so many years, they were all I could see
From mountain’s edge, on down to the sea
My heart took for granted, but now it is sad
If only I knew then, what beauty they had
Traveling silently, passing along empty domains
Remembering times gone by, now nothing remains
Fields gone forever, my eyes sometimes swell
But within saddened hearts, fond memories dwell
Gone now are the fields, not soon to reappear
Now sitting here in silence, with memories most dear
Chances gone, never to return, tearing as I view
The now empty fields, where the sugar cane grew
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