Joanna Gordon

Migration

We came by boat, by plane. We came in droves and droves. We came for vacations, for plastic
tropics, for coconut flavored grandeur. We arrived as tourist and never left. We brought our
husbands, our wives, our children. We came on fighter jets in fresh Navy whites. We chased our
children with thick white sunscreen down beaches we couldn’t pronounce—Wae-kiki and Ala
Moena. We came in elaborate bathing costumes, all polyester frills and red & white bunting. We
adorned our shoulders with lavish plumeria, with fragrant puakenikeni, with violet orchid lei.
More names we can’t pronounce; we call them flowers. Paradise is two dollars, made by nimble
fingers we don’t have to remember. We tell our children don’t stare, don’t talk to locals. We
aren’t sure if they speak the language we do, where that accent comes from, that skin with its
dark wood stain, its wind-beaten working class look. We drink rum poolside at resorts called
“The Royal Hawaiian” and call ourselves Hawaiian too. Sometimes we go home, swearing to
call our Hawaiian romances, our lovely hula girls and never do. Later we will reminisce about
our exotic lovers, all hips and grass skirts. Sometimes we marry the hula girls, give them pale-
faced children and last names like Smith. We buy land, buy homes, buy hotels. We hire locals to
wash our floors and change our sheets for fifty cents a day. When Elvis Presley vacations in our
suites, we name a cocktail after him, a Blue Hawaii, blue curacao and pineapple juice, a moon
sitting atop the weary sea.

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Joanna Gordon is a writer from the gentrified swamplands of East Honolulu. She graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a degree in English and completed a Masters in Fine Arts at Western Washington University. She served as the former Assistant Managing Editor of the Bellingham Review, as well as published her poems and prose with Cherry Tree, The Tenderness Project, Blood Tree Literature and more. Her writing is interested in discussions of white privilege, diaspora, trauma and tenderness. In her spare time, Joanna enjoys scalding cups of coffee, hiking, bright lipstick and the company of great friends.