Joe Balaz

Ocean Mountain

 

Wen you see ocean mountain
like da Minoans did

everyting going be pau hana, brah.

 

Right across da horizon

wun long blue wall
going be rising like wun giant cobra.

 

You going be tinking

dat da huge one wen hit
and da West Coast wen fall into da sea

cause da coming wave

will be biggah
den any modern human has evah seen.

 

Grab your okole

and curse da devil
or pray to da sky

while you kiss everyting goodbye.

 

You going see
dat you wuz just wun infinitesimal speck

on da big round globe

dat still going be deah
wen you stay gone.

 

Wen you see ocean mountain

all da scenes in your earthly life
going frantically fly before your eyes

and like da ultimate baptism

watah and even moa watah
going be swirling and bubbling everywheah.

 

 

 

brah                Bro.
okole              Buttocks.
pau hana         Work is done.  As slang it means “it’s all over.”

 

 

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, Angry Old Man, 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.