Da Buggah Bugs Stay Mutating
by Joe Balaz
If you had in mind
dat science wuz going frog march
da buggahs back into submission
den you bettah tink again.
Baby boomers
and everybody dat came aftah
you don’t know how lucky
you wuz all dose years
following da moment
wen antibiotics wen come onto da scene.
It’s hard to know
wat you nevah experience
wen plenty kine people
wuz dying from infections
cause doctors nevah have
da wonder drugs to fight back.
Too bad da medical field
got so used to prescribing da stuff
cause now da buggah bugs stay mutating
and becoming resistant
to everyting in da white coat arsenal.
It would be wise to realize
dat da human race
is always near catastrophe
sometimes
by its own actions
and at adah times
by forces
dat stay relentless in da shadows.
So no need to go see wun slasher movie
foa get your horror thrills
cause da buggah bugs stay mutating
and dat in itself
is scary enough.
—-
Joe Balaz writes in Hawaiian Islands Pidgin (Hawai’i Creole English) and in American English. His poetry has appeared in such magazines as Stand Literary Journal, Rattle, and London Grip, among others. In May of 2019 NBC News and Mental Floss Magazine featured his book Pidgin Eye for Asian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month, as one of the best new books to be published in the Asian/Pacific Islander literary genre. He presently lives in
Cleveland, Ohio.