Joe Balaz
PAPER INSIGHTS
Everybody like carve out wun niche
or cut anadah notch
while dey aspire
to create wun dazzling literary portfolio.
So now you’ve been smitten
wit wun cathartic urge to join da club
cause you feel
you got someting to say.
Self-importance
is wat you make of it
and dough you got wun way wit words
dat no mean
dat your efforts are monumental.
Don’t take yourself
too seriously.
You’re special
and den again you’re not
as your head swells
wit wun engulfing ego.
It’s good to keep in mind
dat wat you may deem
as fantastic paper insights
might really be as common
as raindrops, sunshine,
or Pushcart nominees.
ADVICE UNDER THE BRIDGE
CENSORED CIRCLE
Somebody got to you
and changed your vision
by whispering in your ear
wit corrosive chatter.
In da bowels of da undahground
got all kine worms and germs
dat going test your immunity.
One infector
felt da words from da public
dat you wen choose
no can fit his imposed canon
of alternative literature
so he wen sway you
to disengage
by persuasively
editing your editing.
Wit your feather pen
broken in half
and your ink well
tipped and spilled ovah
you no can fly like you used to
cause your wings stay all clipped.
He just made you
like everybody else.
Da rebel nature
dat you desired
is now stuck
in da circumference
of wun censored circle.
Break out
and get back to wheah you wuz
cause originality looks good on you.
DRAFTING DAYLIGHT
He’s running to daylight
like dat popular gridiron phrase
wit nutting but green field before him
dough wit dat helicopter gunship
bearing down on his position
maybe he would have been bettah off
hiding in da nearby tree line.
Edit dat.
Let’s start dis ovah.
He’s standing in daylight
surrounded by sheep and goats
grazing in da meadow
as da wildflowers bloom
and da bees seek dere pollen
while wun big transport truck
pulls up wit wun trailer
to load his entire flock
and takes it away to wun slaughterhouse
to be eventually processed
into cat food.
Strike dat.
Maybe dis instead—
He’s relaxing in daylight
floating downstream
on wun rubbah raft
while multitudes
of beautiful women
are calling out his name
and tossing him
dere lingerie from da banks
in unabashed adoration.
Well,
dat seems to work foa me
so here’s da happy ending—
He smiled and waved
and his fantasies wuz bathed
in wun magnificent daylight.
Joe Balaz writes in Hawaiian Islands Pidgin (Hawai'i Creole English) and in American-English. He edited Ho'omanoa: An Anthology of Contemporary Hawaiian Literature.
Balaz is an avid supporter of Hawaiian Islands Pidgin writing in the expanding context of World Literature. He presently lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
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PAPER INSIGHTS
Everybody like carve out wun niche
or cut anadah notch
while dey aspire
to create wun dazzling literary portfolio.
So now you’ve been smitten
wit wun cathartic urge to join da club
cause you feel
you got someting to say.
Self-importance
is wat you make of it
and dough you got wun way wit words
dat no mean
dat your efforts are monumental.
Don’t take yourself
too seriously.
You’re special
and den again you’re not
as your head swells
wit wun engulfing ego.
It’s good to keep in mind
dat wat you may deem
as fantastic paper insights
might really be as common
as raindrops, sunshine,
or Pushcart nominees.
ADVICE UNDER THE BRIDGE
CENSORED CIRCLE
Somebody got to you
and changed your vision
by whispering in your ear
wit corrosive chatter.
In da bowels of da undahground
got all kine worms and germs
dat going test your immunity.
One infector
felt da words from da public
dat you wen choose
no can fit his imposed canon
of alternative literature
so he wen sway you
to disengage
by persuasively
editing your editing.
Wit your feather pen
broken in half
and your ink well
tipped and spilled ovah
you no can fly like you used to
cause your wings stay all clipped.
He just made you
like everybody else.
Da rebel nature
dat you desired
is now stuck
in da circumference
of wun censored circle.
Break out
and get back to wheah you wuz
cause originality looks good on you.
DRAFTING DAYLIGHT
He’s running to daylight
like dat popular gridiron phrase
wit nutting but green field before him
dough wit dat helicopter gunship
bearing down on his position
maybe he would have been bettah off
hiding in da nearby tree line.
Edit dat.
Let’s start dis ovah.
He’s standing in daylight
surrounded by sheep and goats
grazing in da meadow
as da wildflowers bloom
and da bees seek dere pollen
while wun big transport truck
pulls up wit wun trailer
to load his entire flock
and takes it away to wun slaughterhouse
to be eventually processed
into cat food.
Strike dat.
Maybe dis instead—
He’s relaxing in daylight
floating downstream
on wun rubbah raft
while multitudes
of beautiful women
are calling out his name
and tossing him
dere lingerie from da banks
in unabashed adoration.
Well,
dat seems to work foa me
so here’s da happy ending—
He smiled and waved
and his fantasies wuz bathed
in wun magnificent daylight.
Joe Balaz writes in Hawaiian Islands Pidgin (Hawai'i Creole English) and in American-English. He edited Ho'omanoa: An Anthology of Contemporary Hawaiian Literature.
Balaz is an avid supporter of Hawaiian Islands Pidgin writing in the expanding context of World Literature. He presently lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
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