Rock bottom stay all flat
like wun smooth black slate
so take some chalk
and write wun explanation on it.
If da words of futility
are too hard to compose
den wun simple cave drawing will do.
You can pretend
to be wun ancient human
surviving in wun environment
wheah everyting is primitive
and not so complex.
Adah den being trampled on
by wun mastodon
or eaten by wun pack of wolves
existence wuzn’t wun situation
dat couldn’t be handled.
It wuz tough
but at least it wuzn’t complicated
like it is today.
Wit da advances
of da modern age
it’s amazing da world
can still be so difficult.
Da old forest
is essentially da same
but beyond it
wun high pressured lifestyle
speeds along
to wun relentless neon
and wun continous digital code.
Da heightened pace of tings
can just spin you around
and send you spiraling.
In da course of it all
be grateful
to da makers of pharmaceuticals
foa da miracle
of wun valium sunrise.
Because of dere coping gift
wun bright sun is now streaming
onto da synthetic living room carpet
even dough da curtains
on da windows
are tightly drawn closed.
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. In July, 2020, he was given the Elliot Cades Award for
Literature as an Established Writer. It is the most prestigious literary award given in Hawai’i.