POLKA IN WAIALUA
Joe Balaz
Da buggah is looking for new notes
and meandering kine stories.
It kind of makes you wonder
what goes on inside
of his accordion mind
to make him play.
He can get people to move
to the presence of music
while the bellows are pulled
and pressed together
to force air through the reeds
that are opened
by fingering the keys.
This guy is very persuasive
in his presentation
so get inspired
and dance to a polka
even though you never heard one.
In his mini world fascination
check out his odd kind of ideas indeed
as he imagines Polish girls in Europe
kicking up their embroidered skirts.
His new offering
could possibly even be
a hit in Warsaw
more so than in Waialua
where he lives in a duplex apartment
next to the district park.
Da buggah get weird kine scenarios
dat just keep coming
and now he’s an acrobatic cat
walking on a telephone wire
chasing pierogi eating rats
that are even more nimble
to the footing.
See how he tightropes in the air
to all the things
that are happening there
while he feeds
on the dreamy kielbasa
somewhat differently.
*Waialua in the Hawaiian language means “two waters.”
TWO IPU HEKE
Joe Balaz / John M. Bennet / C. Mehrl Bennett
Joe Balaz writes in American English and in Hawaiian Islands Pidgin (HIP). He is a writer, visual artist, and freelance improv musician, who has created works in poetry, visual poetry, and music poetry. Balaz has been published nationally and internationally. He is the author of Pidgin Eye, a book of poetry, and he is also the editor of 13 Miles from Cleveland, an online literary, art, and music magazine. Balaz presently lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
John M. Bennett has been widely published, and has exhibited, and performed his word art worldwide in numerous publications and venues. He was the editor and publisher of Lost and Found Times, from the middle 1970s to the early 2000s. He created the Avant Writing Collection at The Ohio State University Libraries, and was its long time curator until he passed the position on to someone else recently. He has a PhD in Latin American Literature, and lives in Columbus, Ohio.
C. Mehrl Bennett is a multi-media artist, and performer/writer of fluxus scores and experimental poetry. Her work has been published and performed in a number of exhibits and venues. She is a consultant editor and technical facilitator for Luna Bisonte Publications, as well as a contributing editor, artist, and writer for arts or Vispo-related publications and websites. She lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Pidgin Eye and 13 Miles from Cleveland can be found here.
WHATEVER
Words and music by Joe Balaz / electric bass guitar / keyboards