*Ed.’s Note: click image to view larger size.
Immigration Killjoy
Mechanical Sparrows
All da mechanical sparrows stay broken
chirp, chirp, choking
to da oncoming corrosion
as da shiny birdhouse up on da hill
deteriorates into wun pile of small chips.
Sing, song, singing
along wit da copper doves
on da telephone wires
and da bronze geese
honk, honk, honking
searching foa wun place to land.
In da new aviary
da computer model
nevah show da flight
of how wings could crumble
like wun cracker dat you bite
while you look at da screen
and drink your cup of dismissive coffee.
Inside wun round circle
symbiotic to da degrading symptoms
wun iron bald eagle
is hanging up on da wall
as his talons falls from his legs
and clangs upon da floor.
Like wun group
of steel toe crows talking
dere will suddenly be
squawk, shock, flocking
wen disbelief actually happens
and someting else rises
from da dying flames
of wun unexpected Phoenix.
Soda Fountain Solution
Watching da news dese days
is like sticking your head in wun blender
and frantically swirling to da political debate
ad nauseum.
Depending on how you’re feeling
you can eidah add wun handful of aspirin
or wun bottle of booze to da mixture
to offer some sense of alleviation.
In households across da nation
liquid tornadoes
are spinning wildly in counter appliances
to compliment da chaos
dat is being broadcasted on da airwaves.
I’m wondering if some truth serum
poured into dese super charged smoothies
will offer any kind of resolution
to wun idealistic soda fountain solution.
One can only wish
dat everyone could be hanging out in public
sucking on dere straws
and sitting on round stool cushions
passively ingesting all of it in
while sporting pony tails and crewcuts.
At least in da days of Eisenhower
it wuz much easier
to fool yourself into believing
dat politics wuz far less divisive
and dat da country as wun whole
wuz on da verge of wun exciting new future.
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. He is an avid supporter of Hawaiian Islands Pidgin writing in the expanding context of World Literature. He presently lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
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