Joe Balaz

Sarah’s Toga

Her name is Sarah.

She lives in upstate New York
and she wears wun toga.

 

In her mind she’s wun Roman deity
dat has her fingah on all of creation.

To prove her point

she shoots an arrow into da night sky
and knocks out wun star in Orion’s belt.

It’s obvious dat she likes to tease da heavens.

 

Taking off her toga

she lays it flat
and reclines her nude body ovah it.

At her command
da maroon robe elevates

and streaks into da blue
like wun magic carpet.

 

You may tink
dat it’s suddenly raining

but actually da gods are drooling.

 

It’s so titillating foa her
dat she has to come back down

so she sets her eyes on da nearest high point
and lands back on earth

by mounting Mt. Vesuvius.

 

Da exited magna swells
into wun fiery rush to da surface

and dere goes Pompeii!

 

Wun Iroquoian medicine man
watching all of dis

is not too pleased
wit her lascivious behavior

and he summons her
back to Beaver Place

wit wun mystical incantation.

 

Yes, Sarah wit her toga
is wun goddess

but one particular guy
in upstate New York

no like da idea of her
spreading herself around.

 

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. Balaz is an avid supporter of Hawaiian Islands Pidgin writing in the expanding context of World Literature.  He presently lives in Cleveland, Ohio.