Tristan Kiyan, 9, says he expanded his
vocabulary by using a thesaurus

---

The one-armed lad also plays
baseball and soccer

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

As crest mint waves

Shimmer in the glimmering phases of moonlight

I walk along the sandy beach

And to my surprise

I see a baby calf humpback whale

And its mother breach together

They leap so elegantly

So gracefully

They are so beautifully formed

Tristan Kiyan, a 9-year-old Molokai boy with an extraordinary command of words, started writing poetry about two months ago.

"Tutu (Elizabeth Karen McCloskey of Mililani) read poetry to me and I thought, maybe, I can learn to do that, too," said Tristan, the son of Kualapuu School teachers Merry Kay and Brent Kiyan.

"To me, life is happiness, love, giving and kindness. I write about my favorite things, like hiking down the gulch, scuba diving and crabbing."

Through Tristan's eyes, the world is a beautiful place because he's thankful to be alive.

He was born 2-1/2 months early without a left arm.

"Tristan weighed only 2 pounds, 11 ounces at birth and the doctor told us that if he survived, there would be a lot of obstructions down the road like learning disabilities," the boy's mother said.

"But he's a bright and tough boy who looks at life as a series of happenings. He's so optimistic and very sensitive to the moods of people."

Having one arm has never been a handicap for Tristan.

"He never crawled when he was young but he rolled everywhere," his mother said.

"He looked like a little sausage at 9 months."

Today, Tristan plays both soccer and baseball.

"The best thing about life," he says, "is I can participate as long as I know how to do it. I feel just the same as other people.

"To play baseball, my coach and my dad taught me how to put the glove under my arm so I can throw the ball."

Tristan has always enjoyed writing and drawing.

"I love to draw mountains and people," said Tristan, who began keeping a diary about three years ago.

He expanded his vocabulary by taking the advice of a teacher.

"I started using a thesaurus because one of my teachers said we needed to build our vocabulary both in school and at home," he said. His parents didn't push the eldest of their two sons to write.

"He just really picked it up and I believe it's a gift," Tristan's mother said.

Tristan wants to be a volcanologist.

"I'm interested in volcanoes but I've never seen one," he said.

"The type of flows are so powerful and devastating."

Of volcanoes, Tristan writes:

As the soft breeze sways palm trees

A gleaming fiery object appears atop the mountain

We gaze in disbelief as lava pours forth

From an immense crater

Some other poetry

As a gigantic Brahma bull

Trots across the pasture

A cowboy runs for the nearest fence

He is wearing red and you know what that means!

When I was a little child

I walked across a pasture

Guiding my flock

Just then a yellow object shot across the sky

And landed in front of me

I stared in disbelief as an angel appeared

She told me I had nothing to fear

For Christ the Savior was born

As a scuba diver glides through the water

Something catches his eye

It is sunlight gleaming through the water's surface

So elegantly shown