Here is a poem I've written for my Faerie:
I could hear your paws on the lava rock
as you came around the house
in the early Hawaiian sunrise.
Your eyes always looked bright to me
your tail wagging
you were the picture of youth,
exuberant
delicate
joyful.
Others thought you were ancient
hardly adoptable.
I never noticed.
Your ears like wisps of morning cloud
held back in hopes of getting pet
your dancing paws
for the joy of seeing me again
although you saw me every morning.
I stood guard over your food
so the cats wouldn't steal it.
You always loved me
with effortless
unconditional love.
I can say the same for no human.
You were always welcome in my lap
on my bed
in my heart.
I'm sorry your last days were lived outside
when you should have passed on
lying on soft pillows before the fire.
The sun rises.
I go out to feed the cats and dogs.
It seems silent now.
and yet...I hear the sound of your paws on lava rock
and turn to see you sitting there, looking over your shoulder at me
like you did when you watched down the road for me to come home
and I came from a direction you didn't expect.
You smile at me and love is there
the bond between us unbroken.
You seem to tell me there is a Rainbow Bridge,
and it's not the one from Hawai'i to the mainland US
we joke about on-island.
You're there in the fields, playing, able to run on all fours again
restored to youth and glory.
In the distance,
there are piles of pillows and a cookstove
just for you.
A soft brown hand pets you; Pele picks you up, holds you, and smiles.
The gentle fire,
the one that heats Hot Ponds and Champagne Pond in Puna
the one that gives us fireworks every night on the Big Island
without danger.
I have always had a special relationship with Pele as well
and I know she has a place in her heart
for small dogs.
In Hawai'i, when something dies, it must be buried
to become one with the mana, or life force, of Hawai'i.
Faerie, you are mana now,
and I feel you in the wind and rain
and the warmth of the Kilauea fires.
Aloha, my sweet old girl,
a hui hou.
-nuiloa
