The Nā Leo Team would like to congratulate the November 2021 prize winners for their incredible and meaningful art!

Kahealani Makuakane ‘Breath Of Balance’ $100 Prize Winner!

Maile Fahnestock ‘No Longer New’ $50 Prize Winner!

DRIPPING HONEY By: Hazel Bello $50 Prize Winner!

You are the clotted honey dripping from a silver spoon,
and the quivering raindrops chasing each other lazily down the window. You are the plump leaf popping out of soaked soil,
reaching up and up and up
all the way to the sun.
You are the soft whisk of a door gently closed door,
the ghost of laughter left by a half-remembered joke.
But you are not the wind playing with a scrap of newspaper,
and you cannot be the book lying on the bed, spine cracked and pages torn.
Nor can you be the dried-out marker, sitting amongst broken pencils and scribbled reminders. You could never be the tang of cleaner sprayed on dusty glass,
the bitter cup of black tea,
or even the straw hat with the poorly-patched hole.
Maybe you could be the hiss of a frother
where hot metal hits cool milk.
Perhaps, someday, you might be the rush of blood to the brain when anger foams up and spills over.
Or maybe not.
I am the bite of a scraped knee,
the howl of an open window,
and the bluster of restless waves smashing into each other.
And I am not the looming moon watching over my careful children as they twinkle and blaze.
I am the chip in the wise old plate.
And I will never be the honey as it dribbles off the polished spoon. Drip, drip…splat.