The Cusp

Here was the brink of all they knew:
In the hollow sky and teeming blue,
All time and law, all mass and space,
All faith and reason terminates.
On rigid cliffs, obsessive waves
Mold the aeons out of days,
And crumble epochs into years.
Holistic oblivion; the boundless sphere
Of the sole and solipsistic sea
Dissolves us in eternity;
Where all is all and nothing’s else,
We find no bond with another self.

But then the kanaka crossed the strand,
Followed newfound stars to land,
Became the first to cleave in two
The unitary solitude
Of heaven. Knowledge has its start
In separating light from dark,
And waters from the firmaments
Where life is born in difference.
Meet on the beach to make again
That fathomless journey from if to when
Find the equator, and call once more
“Aloha!” to Janus waving on shore.