My rusted love
shudders with the red scales
of high school regret
revisiting the wahine
who kindled my blood.
Holly strolls past the library
in rubber slippers
and green skirt
striped white.
Her eyes burn desire
in French class.
She wants me.
My boy failures
link up, flashing
a newsreel in my head—
beatings, bum grades,
suicide Fridays.
Fear of losing
Helen of Troy
terrifies, freezes
Hector inside.
The coward slinks out
into the blue light.
The bell rings—
Holly glides by.
The hydraulic door
groans opening wide.
I hear slippers
slapping the cement path
cutting through campus.
I listen until
the door slams shut.
Kirby Michael Wright was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a graduate of Punahou School in Honolulu and the University of California at San Diego. Wright received his MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. His new book is THE QUEEN OF MOLOKA’I, a work of creative nonfiction about the life and times of his grandmother.