From "understory"

for my pregnant wife, nālani, during her second trimester

nālani and

i walk

to our

small community

garden plot

in mānoa — 

the seed

packets in

my pocket

sound like

a baby’s

toy rattle — 

when do

they spray

glyphosate along

the sidewalks?

from kunia

to waimea,

fifty thousand

acres of

gmo fields — 

how will

open air

pesticide drift

affect our

unborn daughter,

whose nerve

endings are

just beginning

to root? — 

we plant

seeds in

rows, soil

gathers under

our fingernails — 

syngenta, dupont,

dow, pioneer,

basf, monsanto

$240 million

 seed sector — 

corn for

cattle feed

and syrup — 

runoff turns

[our] streams

red — poisons

lo‘i — 50,000

heart sea

urchins die off — 

what will

our daughter

be able

to plant

in this

paradise of

fugitive dust —