Koa Chair

by Cloë Parks

Didn’t go to college
Ain’t got nothing in my wallet
Just sitting on my tired Koa chair
Kids race around our impecunious waste
Throwing their innocent lives away
Testing the essence of time throughout the days
I did the same
Thought it was a game
Generations of children
Come and gone
Making the same mistakes
I’ve been sitting here through the midst of it all
Watching grand achievements and great falls
Just sitting on my creaking Koa chair
Seen evolution
Through an old man’s eyes
Sometimes I feel that it’s disguised
No one notices
The tide rolling in
No one stops to smell the gentle gardenias
I have the aina all to myself
But now it’s no longer in good health
I can never forget
Now all I feel is regret
Sitting on my dying Koa chair