Night Pick

Night Pick

A shadow lingered
Beneath the Puakenikeni trees.
Snaps and rustles
Perked my ears up
And my caution tape
Told me to stay alert.
My father harvested the trees
When the moon was up
Emerging from behind the clouds,
A flash light muffled by a blanket.
Leaves skittered down the road,
Wind blown pieces of crinkled paper
Tumbling and turning,
Pushed and tugged
Along the darkened blacktop
Giving off the deep orange sheen from the street light
Flickering on and off,
A pumpkin on Halloween
Snickering on a night of a full moon.
Crickets chirping and jumping
From one grass blade to the next
As cars and motorcycles
Zoomed in and out of sight.
White gems that neatly decorated the
Forest grove, glowed and shimmered,
Beckoning me to pluck them and be woven into a lei.
The white house with green shutters had three
Lights on which simultaneously went out.
My father and I
Found our way around beneath the
Moonlight.
I reminisced back to
Summer days out in the trees
Tying my hair up ever five minutes
Swiping it off my sticky face.
My dad blamed me for picking
The flowers with my eyes closed,
I claimed that the flowers were simply playing
Hide-and-seek.
I watched my dad
Throw the tennis ball for the dogs
That blended in with the night,
Prancing across the lawn that
Smelled of freshly mowed grass.
The lanterns flickered a couple
More times, candles
On a double chocolate cake,
The shadows whispered a good night and
The dogs ended their digging for worms,
Their long snouts nuzzling
Their way under the roots.
My dad’s yelp and
The bee’s stinger marked
The end of that
Night pick.