Pages

Saturday, August 28, 2021

Urban Zen in the Rust Belt

 
Urban Zen
—Poetry and Photos by Joseph Balaz, Cleveland, OH
 


RUST BELT BINGO
                                                                                                             
Standing downtown

looking up
at da Terminal Tower building

makes me wonder
wat I’m doing heah in da first place

but no sense backtracking on dat
cause dis is wheah fate has led me.


You are wheah you is
and you is wheah you are

simple as dat.


So now Ohio
is part of da bio

even as my island sensibilities
stay taking everyting in

examining dat unique awareness
in da complexity of itself.


Wen I stay walking dese streets
I tink of anykine stuff too

like da pierogis and kielbasa
I just had foa lunch

and how dose ono grinds
wen just broke da mouth.


Ruminating in island lingo

while living
and playing Rust Belt bingo

all da numbahs dat come up foa me                                                                                             
is different from anybody else

cause I fill all da squares
wit perceptive kine circles

as round as da pupils in my eyes.


It comes down to da way

I view and interpret
da new world around me.


It’s like dat classic mind exercise
dat expands your tinking—

“If a tree falls in a forest
and no one is around to hear it

does it make a sound?”



Deahfore da parallel taught—


“If I stay tinking in Pidgin
ovah heah on da continent

does da language still exist?”



As long as it’s between my ears

dose familiar words and phrases
going live everywheah.


* * *

ono grinds               Delicious food.
broke da mouth       Expression that food is very good.
Pidgin                     Hawai’i Creole English.
 
 
 
Deadly Heat
 


PRONTO NOW


You bettah grab da wheel
and start reversing backwards

cause da tipping point
is right around da bend.


From wun evidentiary standpoint

da projected disastrous weather
dat is beginning to arrive upon da earth

going fully use
all of dose greenhouse gases

to make everybody feel da heat.


Da petrocapitalists
are forcing your hand on da griddle

and making you sit
on da red hot coils of wun electric stove.


Moa bettah you scream
wun scream of protest

raddah den wun scream of agony.


Focus on dat corporate fat cat
continually pushing fossil fuels

wit wun big smile from ear to ear.


It’s time
to knock out some oily teeth

and let moa wind
and solar energy

flow through all da gaps.

____________________

Today’s LittleNip:


Hawaii is not a state of mind, but a state of grace.

—Paul Theroux

____________________

Welcome to the Kitchen, Joe! 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 (www.amazon.com/Pidgin-Eye-Joe-Balaz/dp/1091108706). His art, concrete poetry, and visual poetry have appeared in numerous art and literary magazines online. Balaz presently lives in Cleveland, Ohio. Today he sends us two “synergies”, he says. Thanks, Joe—and don’t be a stranger!

Would you like to be a SnakePal? All you have to do is send poetry and/or photos and artwork to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post work from all over the world, including
that which was previously-published. Just remember: the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—for poetry, of course!

Today’s poetry event with Traci Gourdine and Patrick Grizzell has been postponed till September 25th. Host Lara Gularte writes: “Patrick Grizzell was bitten by an angry Black Widow Spider [Friday] and received hospital treatment and medications. The good news is that Patrick was able to escape from the Spider's web and he did not become her prey. We will hear Traci and Patrick next month, but please come to an open reading [today, Saturday], same place, same time, and bring your poems, your book of poetry to read from, or a poem by your favorite poet. We will be inside Love Birds Coffee in Diamond Springs due to bad air quality.” Our thoughts are with Patrick today, and may this episode of his life pass quickly!

_______________________________

—Medusa
 
 
 
 Joe Balaz
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.