Biographical Details
Joe Balaz writes in Hawaiian Islands Pidgin (Hawai’i Creole English) and American English. He is the author of Pidgin Eye, a book of poetry. Some of his poems have appeared in Stand Magazine, The Lake, and London Grip, among others. Balaz presently lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
TELLING IT LIKE IT IS
“Might as well dress up like wun deer
and run in front of wun mountain lion.
Same smell. Same station. Same result.”
Dose wuz da comments
addressed to da television
dat we wuz looking at
in da living room.
Ronald had moa to say too
while we watched da news
about da teenage girl
dat had her leg bit off
by wun shark in Australia.
He continued
wit wun deadpan expression,
“Dere watah. Dere rules,”
as we wuz informed
how da young person
wen bleed to death
and die on da beach.
Blunt and unfeeling
is wat some people would say
but Ronald
wuz just telling it like it is.
Even his cruel joke
kinnah summed it up
on how he viewed
da whole situation—
“Sharks and me
have wun undahstanding.
I stay out of dere ocean.
Dey stay off of my lawn.”
© Joe Balaz