Joe Balaz, Hawai’i, USA
Citizen sky
above da changing ocean
your cooling rain
not going mattah anymoa
cause da plankton
may soon be dying.
Acidity and wun warm global bath
is altering millions of years
of unpredictable predictability.
Citizen sky
above da changing ocean
you seem to be as blue
as da planet beneath you.
Azure, cerulean,
let da nostalgic romantics
wish foa da color dey see
but I’ll just go
wit wun basic blue,
turning blue,
wit all da sadness
dat da troubling crisis alludes to.
Citizen sky
above da changing ocean
da clouds are gathering
and da steam is rising.
In da little tidal pools
looking like wun possible
worldly catastrophe in micro
it appears dat da minnows
are gasping foa breath
as if dey all got heat stroke.
Citizen sky
above da changing ocean
it’s so tragic
dat your cooling rain
not going mattah anymoa
cause da temperature is spiking
and wun new flood is at hand.
Not even Noah
or heroes of fanciful myths
will be able to beat back
da unrelenting
and unforgiving mega tide
wen it finally arrives.
Note: The above poem is written in Hawai'i Creole English, a variety of English spoken in the Hawaiian Islands today.
Joe Balaz writes in Hawaiian Islands Pidgin (Hawai'i Creole English). He is the author of Pidgin Eye, a book of poetry. NBC News featured the book for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, as one of the best new books to be written by a Pacific Islander in 2019. Balaz was recently honored in July, 2020, with the Elliot Cades Award for Literature as an Established Writer for 2019 for his many literary works through the years. The award is the most prestigious literary honor in Hawai'i. Balaz presently lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
