A Pot of Humuhumunukunukuapua’a

A Pot of Humuhumunukunukuapua’a

In a store I saw a one-cup teapot
shaped like a fish I once met
under the waves at Puako Beach.
Short as a thumb, he had a name longer
than the curving shore. Breaker 
blue scales and gold fin-to-fin stripe,
he startled me among the reef knees?that 
and his painted eye under surf as frothed 
as kettle-singing water. I took him home 
and filled him with leaves and bubbles,
let him ruminate until the tea steeped me 
dark enough. As he swam away, 
I pressed a silver fin to each eye, 
lifted my cup and drank 
crackling syllables of sea.