Maoli in the Mirror

Don't you ever tell me what you think I'm worth

You don't know a thing about me, first..

How can you determine what my struggle has been

When you don't even know the position I'm in

What makes you so experienced in my life?

Have you witnessed even a moment of my strife?

What do you know about living in a foreign land?

What do you know about this marching band?

You tell me my struggle wasn't like yours

Um, we're two different people, unlikely of course! 

So once again I ask, what is this you know of me?

Do you discount your vision?  Maybe you can't see.

Maybe you haven't looked past your own backyard.

That does not mean, my struggles weren't hard.

Your yard doesn't apply to what's in my life.

Yet against you, I NEVER compared strife.

Just because I didn't pay $60,000 to say I can read

Does not authorize you to say that I can't succeed.

Just because I was not raised or live in the islands

Does not mean, I'm lesser victim to crimes against man.

How did your family handle it when they were exiled?

Oh, you're still in the islands?  I bet that was wild.

How did you feel when you were the only maoli in school?

Constantly referred to as a hula dance, by racist fools.

How did you feel, homeless as a ten year old kid?

Didn't even have a mother who cared if you lived?

A father on crack and a twin hooked on crime.. 

Do you still want to compare - your life to mine?

To not have a cousin, a relative, a friend..

And you want to tell me that your heart needs to mend?

Forbidden to admit, the blood that makes me,

For fear of good reasons, yet untold stories.

Restricted from culture, prohibited from being myself

Yet you have the nerve to say I've live a westernized wealth?

I fail to understand, just what you see.

Am I a big bad guy or a victim of total envy?

Maybe the problems you have are all in your head

They didn't steal the land, you live on its homestead!

They didn't steal the Kingdom, it exists unto this day

All they stole was your mindset, they blew it away.

You want to see a struggle?  Try coming back home

After three generations away, to a place unknown.

With love in your heart, you prepare to make way,

Only to find out that your people discount you, for where you must stay.

People spread the word aloha like plastic flowers at the store,

Yet treat each other with vengeance, aloha no? aloha no more.

Hating on each other like children in a school, and

Wondering why the state continues to treat us like fools?

Look at what we're doing, Maoli as a race!

No wonder why we have been stuck in this place!

We spend more time hating on our own sisters and brothers

Than we spend uniting against the harmful others.

While we're looking sideways, they're having a ball

Tearing up what's left before the Kingdom falls.

And you mean to tell me that among all this strife, 

You have time to pass judgement on somebody else's life?

Why don't you wake up and smell the Kingdom at your door?

Calling you to go outside and malama it more.

Its calling you to recognize the lies you live in

What you're doing is called treason

The fact that you don't live by Kingdom Law

Is probably the Kingdom's most serious flaw.

Stop looking for a leader, it will come in time.

Pay attention to the fact that you're committing a crime.

If you're offended after reading this, e kala mai that's magnificent

It only proves you right. I'm western, which you called unintelligent.

My geographical location prevents me from what runs through my veins

And only you know, right?  I'm just discounted remains

Remember what you said.  You'll eat every word.

Every accusation you gave me, was really absurd.

You know every word I speak, remember, you have a degree

Which was how you arrived at your judgement upon me.

Maoli in the mirror, every day of my existence

Something you can never take away with your 'sense'

No matter where I'm at, no matter where I'll be

You can't erase what makes me Kanaka Maoli.

Kahala Lei

copyright 2013