By ANN INOSHITA
This poem is excerpted from Eh, No Talk Li’dat.
Eh, No Talk Li’Dat, an anthology forthcoming from Kaya Press, is centered on Pidgin, or Hawai‘i Creole English. The following poem is excerpted from this anthology.
Pidgin began as a dialect of trade between Native Hawaiians and Western seafarers and merchants and evolved as a Creole language in the sugar plantations in the 1920s and ’30s, yet, until today, it is deemed substandard by school administrators and is not recognized as a Creole language by the State Department of Education. It is the only language I can think of in the U.S. that was co-authored by the various ethnic groups in the islands: Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders (Samoa, Tonga), sugar planters and migrant laborers from Asia (China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines), Portugal (Madeira and the Azores), and Puerto Rico. Recent speakers and innovators of Pidgin include transplants from Micronesia. In addition to the poems, stories, and excerpted plays, all written in Pidgin and contributed by over forty of Hawai‘i’s writers, the genre-defying Eh, No Talk Li’Dat includes archival materials, newspaper articles, transcripts of televised comic skits, and comic strips.
March 16, 2021
Trump blamed China fo COVID-19
calling da virus Kung Flu and da China virus,
so get pleny people from pleny states going afta Asian Americans
blaming Asians fo da pandemic.
Den one haole guy wen go to da Asian spas
and started shooting just at whoever.
Eight people wen ma-ke. Six of um, Asian.
All da police captain said was
da killa had one bad day.
Eh, I get pleny bad days too,
but you no see me going Vegas
on one shooting rampage.
All da killa did was blame da victims.
Racist, sexist shit.
I get pleny American friends who stay
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino.
Dey live mainland side but sometimes hard, dey say,
fo live dea cuz get pleny Americans like beef wit dem.
Couple days ladda, one haole guy
attacked one elderly Asian lady.
You know wat happened next.
She wen Kung Fu his ass.
Flying kick him all da way to da hospital.
Racist, sexist, ageist shit.
Ann Inoshita is author of a book of poems, Mānoa Stream, and co-author of No Choice but to Follow and What We Must Remember. She is the recipient of the 2021 Elliot Cades Award for Literature for an established writer.
