Joe Balaz

It must have been da ovahload of anger
surging through his veins
 
along wit da effects of tequila
 
dat wen send da jousting knight
galloping down da highway
 
to stab wun oncoming classic Impala
right between da left double headlight.
 
Dat wuz part of da drama dat took place
out on da highway
 
foa everyone to see.
 
Coming down wun off ramp
 
Sir Catastrophe
took it even further
 
wen da hooves of his charger
wen trample ovah wun gaggle of baby geese
 
squashing dem all like bugs
into da pavement—
 
Not even wun windmill chasing Don Quixote
would have done dat.
 
Out of control
and out of his mind
 
da buggah wuz feeding
da heat of da moment
 
like wun swirling hurricane.
 
Dismounting on main street
in da suburbs
 
Lord-Holier-Den-Tao
wen pile it on
 
wen he wen draw his sword
 
and threatened to chop off da heads and arms
of people
 
dat wen go running and screaming
through da neighborhood.
 
Wen da police arrived
 
da suspect wuz seen
walking into wun house across da street
 
and he wuz easily identified
 
by the broken heart emblem
emblazoned upon his chest.
 
Wun officer talked to his fair lady
up in her bedroom
 
while assessing da damage
 
of wun door dat wuz kicked in
earlier in da day.
 
Anadah cop in da living room
made him write down wun statement
 
of wat transpired
in da tortured kingdom.
 
All da metaphors

and  da painful imagined scenes
of brutal chivalry
 
made as much sense
 
as trying to find da words
to explain wat happened.
 
You can conjure up
any kine of diversionary tale you like
 
but it’s still so sad
to finally realize and discover
 
dat wen you have
wun aggressive hammer
 
everyting looks like wun nail.

 
 
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. Some of his recent Pidgin writing has appeared in Unlikely Stories Mark V, Otoliths, and The Lake, among others. Balaz is an avid supporter of Hawaiian Islands Pidgin writing in the expanding context of World Literature. He presently lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
 
 
 
Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times his publications include All the Babble of the Souk and Cartoon Molecules collected poems and Key of Mist the recently published Tesserae translations from Spanish poets Guadalupe Grande and Carmen Crespo  visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author.  See Robin performing his work Performance (Leeds University) .