VALIUM SUNRISE by Joe Balaz

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.

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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.