Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch
Poems

Lexys Mata
Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch Poem # 1: My Hands Move Life

A three-year-old girl pushes herself up and you know what she does?
She walks, with the support of her mother, father and sister.
She was able to do that with the help of six hands.

A five-year-old girl grabs the rim of a mike and you know what she does?
She sings, loud enough for everyone to hear, clear enough for hearts to be in awe.
She was able to do that with one hand.

A ten-year-old girl places her arms together, side by side upward, and you know
what she does?
She bumps a volleyball, high enough to fly over the net, strong enough to start a
rally.
She was able to do that with two hands.

A twelve-year-old girl walks down a few steps and you know what she does?
She sits, crying and contemplating on why she had to leave some valuable treasures
behind.
She was able to do that with no hands.

A fourteen-year-old moves up to higher levels and you know what she does?
She walks, proudly, entering a new chapter of her life with new treasures and new
self.
She was able to do that with two hands.

A seventeen-year-old will be travelling across the country and you know what she
will be doing?
She’ll be learning, mapping a new path for her career and her life.
And she’ll be able to do that all on her own, with her two bare hands.
Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch #2: The Green in the Shades of Blue

Your poem:
One summer
I found myself drawn to the beach
Every day for an entire month.

I went with family

I went with friends
I’d find myself by myself at times
Strangely, it was only me who could see the inside of
the ocean.

The sea is blue, obviously

It’s a gorgeous reflection of the sky
With multitude shades of blue,
But that summer I saw shades of green.

Green slowly moving in the ocean

Green moving along the shore
Along reefs

The green was always near me,

Close enough for me to make contact.

That green was the honu,

It was never the same one, but it would always be
right beside me
Under me
Near me.

In that moment,
I often asked myself,
Is that my Kūpuna
My ʻAumakua?

Perhaps,
But at least I know
That when I head to the beach
I have someone watching me
I have the green in the shades of blue
Protecting me.
Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch #3: Hours Cycle the Routine

Music filled the dancefloor
Everyone was grooving to the rhythm
Hours lasted cycling this same routine

Classmates would move on and off

Feet would come and go to the
wooden floor
And a friend would go to the event to
just sit.
Hours lasted cycling this same routine

80 minutes left til the night was over

Flashes of red and yellow came
charging
Classmates down, classmates up
I don’t want hours to be cycling a same
routine
Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch #4: Never

know What goes on
in my head
It’s
Lately
Been so often
I’ve been
That it
Finding myself
Has Some often stare
In a daze
Become Other’s don’t care
For many days now
A routine. But those who gaze
Upon my daze

Question Why, What Is She Thinking

About?

And my answer
Is
I contemplate
About
Life, love, desire, wonder
Perhaps worry about future
Loss
Heartbreak
Change
You
Never know
Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch #5: I live in ʻAiea

If you look around me
In the surroundings of my home
You will see the stadium of Aloha
Ice palace in the court
Few more minutes on the drive
Passing the railʻs construction
And youʻll go to Pearlridge
That enompasses ʻAiea
It is the center

However
If you look towards the North
You’lldiscover Waimalu
If you look towards the South East
Youʻll see Halawa
Farther South, youʻll see Moanalua.

The drive is quick

It appears that these regions
Are so near
Are one
That it becomes confusing on which part could I be from.

But Iʻll tell you indeed

That I identify with the one seed
Implanted onto the island
ʻAiea, my home.

I stand with it
I thrive in it
I live in ʻAiea
Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch #6: Years From Now

Soon
Hopefully years from now
Every acre of the island will be harshly covered in gravel
and cement
Maybe even covered in wood and stone
Built high enough to block the sun from shining.

And all you’ll notice is the transparent glass windows

Presenting calm people lying out on their fancy patio
Sitting nicely in the radiating shade

All you’ll notice is the sidewalks being filled with people

walking
Great for healthy habits
But terrible for confinement
For they will ONLY walk ten minutes down and ten
minutes back
To get their groceries, clothes or gifts.

Soon
Years from now
Every acre of this islands green will turn to gray
Every islands blue will turn to black
And every island whites and yellows will simply become
darkened.

Who wants to live in a world like that?

Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch #7:
Heat the ice, it melts
Water the fire, it
disappears
Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch #8: Approaching You Scares

Me

I often have my eyes

Gaze at the faint clouds

With no realization that I am even doing it

Daydreaming

Daydreaming of fantasies

That I know will never come true

Daydreaming about certain people

And how I imagine my encounter with them

Or my conversation with them would go

Even more so, how my conversation with

him would go

And when I see him in my path

Coming from the opposite direction

Walking towards me but to someone else

I feel like I can actually

Gain the courage to utter words

But I become a dark street

Silent, empty

With no point of moving.

Perhaps one day,

That’ll change

And my fantasies will become reality.

Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch #9
There’s a secret hidden within me
And I don’t think anybody knows
I don’t even know
But here it goes
But here it goes I am secretly the weather
I am secretly the weather That comes and goes upon this
That comes and goes upon this very hill very hill
My emotions My emotions
radiate the rays of the sun radiate the rays of the sun
The next The next
It hurls the tears of the clouds It hurls the tears of the clouds
My thoughts My thoughts
can be as clear as a white canvas can be as clear as a white canvas
Or Or
can be as dark and mysterious as abstract can be as dark and mysterious as
art. abstract art.

You never know You never know

How to interpret it How to interpret it
Just like weathermen mistaken Just like weathermen mistaken
We never surely can predict how my We never surely can predict how
weather is going to be my weather is going to be
Whether it be windy Whether it be windy
Sunny Sunny
Stormy Stormy
Bleak Bleak
You just never know. You just never know.
Like right now Like right now
I’m the clear sky before the rain hits hard I’m the clear sky before the rain
There’s a secret hidden within me hits hard
And I don’t think anybody knows
I don’t even know
Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

BRANCH #10: “MISSING YOU” (SONNET)

IT’S BEEN SEVEN YEARS SINCE WE’VE SEEN YOUR FACE.

WE CRY FOR YOU MOST EVERY NIGHT AND DAY.
BUT NOW WE KNOW YOU’RE IN A BETTER PLACE.
WE GIVE YOU FLOWERS ON VALENTINE’S DAY
SOMETIMES I HEAR YOU COME INTO THE NIGHT.
IS THIS A DREAM OR IS IT IN REAL LIFE?
WE WANT TO SEE YOU IN OUR CLEAR EYE SIGHT.
YOUR HUSBAND WANTS TO SEE HIS LOVELY WIFE.
MAKE A SIGN THAT WILL SHOW THAT YOU ARE NEAR.
YOU’RE HERE, THE PERSON WE WANTED TO SEE.
WE FEEL YOUR PRESENCE, SO WE KNOW YOU’RE HERE.
BUT NOW YOU’RE LEAVING US, YOU’RE LEAVING ME.
YOU’RE PUTTING US IN TEARS BY THE GULF STREAM.
BUT DON’T WORRY; WE’LL SEE YOU IN OUR DREAMS.
Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch #11: Forgive me, I didn’t get Jamba for you

I took a drive
Out to Jamba
To get a refreshing drink.

I come home
And you look upset with me
Please forgive
I forgot you were home
I didn’t think
Of getting you a drink
Instead
I brought home
Hamburger Steak
Chicken Wings
Kalua Pig
Let’s start a feast
Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch #12 : Where is the Empathy?

Earlier in the week
My eyes leaped from my computer to the TV
It was exhibiting a movie
With the basis of Jews and Germans.

I thought it was just a comedy

One of those movies with dumb scenes
Portrayed to be hysterically funny
And it was…. for a brief moment.

But then it appeared to be more realistic

Precisely more tragic for it was mirroring
The life of Jewish children at the time of Hitler.

Children traumatized by the sight of bullets

Hitting the hearts and minds of their parents
Eyes not quick enough to shield them from the blood

Digging deeper into the underground tunnels

Set aside to rise the resistance
Comes aid for those children
Giving them a better life than what is seen before

Watching this film

It makes heads turn
Brains twirl and ponder the thought
How can these people have no empathy?
What promotes the fear of different roots to have Germans sprout thorns
Piercing at Jews very soul, and not see the color of their insides pours red as well?
Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch #13: Covering Cement

My feet stay glued

The floor holds it secure
There’s no rope, no leash to bound it
Just this rocky cement

My arms stay latched

Rests comfortably on the chair
There’s no cuffs, no ties
Just this rocky cement

My body strapped back

Trapped still
There’s no belt, no binds
Just this rocky cement

Time flies by
The grass grows thick
The ground becomes dusty
The windows fog

It’s just me,

Covered in cement
Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch #14: Paths to Positivity

It’s called many things, optimism, hope, light, but specifically positivity. Within my years of life, I have grown
to observe the hurt that people face, and the dread that dims people’s days. It’s the bad closing in with their
darkness and using its hands to suffocate people’s spirits so that they never reach back up into the light of
day. To those that face this, take my hand so I can pull you up and guide you through the paths of positivity.

Stone one: If you ever feel like your falling down, looking at the ground, it’s hard enough to keep you stable,
but hard enough to knock some sense into you. WE all have empathy for what you’re going through, but if
you constantly complain about the negative nillys that have met your way, ground yourself, think out loud of
what suns brightened your skies and cleared your gray clouds from having raindrops fall.

Stone two: It’s easy to give up and bury yourself in darkness… don’t. Push yourself to do a challenge, blanket
yourself with loved ones. Talk don’t steep quite in your mind, because it’s dangerous. The way your dark
imagination can work may chain you to the walls of brainwash. You may be hypnotized into thinking
negativity is forever, it isn’t. Open up, let your words flow out.

Stone three: The rest seems hard, I know, but this one is easy, cry. Let your feelings drip and pour down,
because the other stones that have helped to keep you up are always there.

You know what you just did? You walked along the paths to positivity.
Lexys Mata Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 12:06:30 PM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 10:94:bb:ee:10:18

Branch #15: I hear _____

Words have meaning

Words have memories

It’s like the tune of a song

When the opening rhythm plays
A memory triggers my synapses

What’s the particular word?

Any, and every single word

Brings understanding