Joe Balaz

Mongoose Killah

Watching in da grass
wit kaleidoscope vision 

you rewrite da fable. 

Aftah all
you stay up deah on wun pharaoh’s crown

and da story is
watevah way you want it to be.

Scales are tensing
and rattling like warrior shields. 

Dere’s moa power in da belly plates
den you evah felt before. 

Must be da vibrating energy
of da earth below.

Good sign.  Da gods are wit you.
   
Snake eye intent is humungous
in wun unreal focus. 

Looking through da slender blades
you size up da looming adversary.

Down in da green jungle carpet
dere’s no kryptonite heah

to weaken da resolve.

Da stars are aligned
and perfectly centered

just like dat "S" tattooed on your head.

You no need wun red cape foa fly

wen you spring wun deadly surprise
wit two lethal fangs.

Da buggah nevah know
wat hit ‘um

as wun fiery lava flow
surges through da veins—

Looks like Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
going bite da dust.

It’s just anadah version
in wun multicolored dream

viewing da victory parade

and buzzing in da triumph
of wun mongoose killah.

Back in Time

If he could physically travel
further back in time

he would be having wun drink
wit all of dose early surrealists.

As foa now
he’s only visiting da 60’s in his head

by affirming his affinity
wit da gateway pill of Timothy Leary.

Darren is so nostalgic.

He likes to drop acid
like tons of people did

in da old psychedelic days.

Remembah dat eye catching visual ad
dat had two eggs in wun frying pan?

Its caption read,

This Is Your Brain On Drugs.  

Dat messsage nevah mattah to Darren

cause he had dozens and dozens
of chicken house offerings

periodically sizzling in his noggin.

It’s unreal dat his cerebral wiring
wuzn’t totally fried.

He must have some strange resistance
to da adverse effects of LSD.

Maybe science should use Darren                                     
as wun case study.

Dere could be unknown benefits
to head trips aftah all.

So even dough

he occasionally twitches his face                                                 
somewat uncontrollably

and scares all da women and kids
in public

unbeknownst to everyone

he could end up holding
wun magnificent and groundbreaking key.

While kissing da sky repeatedly

Darren could possibly be                          
wun new world voodoo child

dat going bring wun alternative reality
into everybody’s mind expanding view.

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 Rattle, Juked, Otoliths, and Hawai'i Review,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.