Off in the distance,
at the horizon,
the south side of Maui island
looms in the late afternoon haze.
A rainbow layers itself there,
as though it had wings.
Suddenly I better understand
the ancient imagining
of angels.
Nearer our own Kohala shoreline,
a large chunk of lava rock
in the same evening light
becomes a woman in a shawl.
Another chunk of rock
once covered in living coral
appears further offshore
under a transparent gush
of turquoise water.
As the ocean eddies and swirls,
I have often mistaken it,
depending on the surge of sea,
for resident dolphins swimming
in tight circles around its surface.
It is easy out here,
in this vast expanse
of the Pacific,
to see beneath appearances.