Wade’s 101: Haiku retrospective 43
By Wade Kwon[Share on Twitter]
- garden buffet
The leaves have little
bite marks where wild visitors
stop for healthy snacks. - a trip to the beach
Find the perfect spot
for catching rays, reading trash,
making sand castles. - kiss track
When artists feud, let
them make up with lip-locks set
to a funky beat. - canning fodder
The fight for freedom
never ends. Must we always
send them in harm’s way? - eternal summer
Rising seas, flooded
coasts, ancient viruses, wide-
spread decimation. - stirrings
A gentle breeze lifts
my aching heart to new heights.
Love is in the air. - frustration without representation
No one else was in
the room where it happened, the
room where it happened. - a mom’s poetry journal
First words, first steps, first
day of school. Write it all down,
even when it hurts. - a sorta fairytale 2.0
Once upon a time.
Boy swipes girl. Boy loses girl.
Boy friends girl. The end. - logged out
They dismantled the
giant oak, its wooden bones
left out on the curb. - the path once taken
Ugly gardens, mean
mutts, a falling piano
and a touch of puke. - we take it for granted
The long forgetting
of little niceties done
without need of praise. - alternative fiction
The edges of the
reality distortion
field grow unbounded. - the patriarch, the baby and the father
The specter of death
came calling and never left
our once happy home. - james and the giant (im)peach
The corridors of
power echo with the words
of the lone top cop. - restless heart syndrome
Insecurity,
a faithful companion to
keep me uneasy. - as goes flint
Water comes in both
leaded, unleaded. Make sure
yours is the right one. - cardiac conditioning
Love, however brief,
strengthens a heart against the
loss that often comes. - keys to resiliency
Be realistic.
Believe life is meaningful.
Wing it when needed. - a time of renewal
Withered vines and dead
leaves cleared for a row of new
seeds and some sunshine. - the monster at the end of this preview
All movie trailers
end the same way: with shameless
pleas to buy tickets. - curse of the attentive
Staring at the back
of everyone else’s phones,
waiting to converse. - what i call my junk
The exclamation
point delivers excitement
in a slim package. - you do you
Her tirades against
the universe came from her
weird Twitter outbursts. - all sweat, all the time
After a shower,
waking up, getting something
from the car, breathing. - then ludicrous plan it is
A reasonable
course of action is seldom
called upon to try. - vox unpopuli
The most persuasive
voice is the one nagging deep
from inside the head. - the wake of cindy
Rain nourished the land
in a reassuring caress
on a darkened day. - woes before doze
Night becomes prison
for insomniacs who want
parole to dreamland. - a greedy cancer
Corruption poisons
the powerful, infecting
people with mistrust. - rip megan rondini
She was raped. She cried
for help. They shunned her, blamed her.
Then she killed herself. - sitcom scrum
The idiot ball
bounces from character to
character for laughs. - bles this mess
It’s easy to write
haiku when you don’t have to
count out the sylla— - post-lunch lull
The afternoon is
for wrapping napkins, flirting
with fellow servers. - creative input
Knowing trivia
answers: good. Making up the
answers: much better. - the finicky gourmand
She would eat only
chicken fingers, potatoes
(mashed) and M&Ms. - every day’s a vacation in the ocean
Even the sharks are
headed to the beach for some
swimming and nibbling. - salt water tally
Waves write their names in
lattice letters of foam with
disappearing ink. - certain unalienable rights
That among these are
Life, Liberty and the pur-
suit of Happiness. - declare and conquer
The Founding Fathers
understood all too well the
power-mad tyrant. - the zen of baking
The pan holds batter.
The oven radiates. The
cake rises or falls. - two out of three on the grateful list
Being in great health.
Having great abdominals.
Great at telling lies. - grateful on the go
Discount muffins and
cheap gas and a car that lasts
for some 20 years. - grateful on the net
The fellowship, the
friendship and the endless wealth
of cute videos. - body positivity gratitude
Grateful for teeth that
chew (but not great at tearing),
soft lips and soft hands. - are you not grateful to be entertained?
Peak television.
Audiobooks on demand.
Superhero flicks. - a grateful spirit embiggens the smallest soul
Grateful for things that
last, relationships that grow,
a heart that accepts. - on the road to gratitude
Hospitality
in strange places, a kind heart,
inviting cuisine. - the good place
The friend zone is where
I want to be, gossiping
laughing and scheming. - the blogging fairy
The blogging fairy
brings good ideas and lots
of site visitors. - an introvert in hell
Just need that one lone
hour away from people
and charts and mingling. - finite jest
Considering how
stupid life is, it’s better
that we are mortal. - winky face heart eyes
The journey of a
thousand texts begins with a
single emoji. - the mask of zero
Sometimes, character
is revealed under the most
mundane conditions. - flash film binge
They watched a bunch of
nobodies bring everything
to life in 2 days. - a soul so light
Unburdened with lies
and mistakes, grasping for love
and understanding. - battle of the networker stars
He passed out business
cards like candy, the kind that
rots your will to live. - heads, we’re good
The choice to be nice.
The choice to be kind. The choice
to be fair. Take it. - perhaps a second intermission
The tenor declares
mild weather in a 20-
minute aria. - kids’ matinee
They marched into the
theater single file and
watched without a peep. - home remedies
Take a bee’s stinger,
mix it with ointment and brine,
inject rectally. - a minor legal matter
A Boy Scout is blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah and blah. - after employee chip insertion
Make them dance like the
puppets they are, then charge them
double for vending. - a type of food group
His idea of
cooking was to open a
bag of chips, served fresh. - at the reunion of former classmates
Everyone’s bigger,
balder, gauntier, louder
and mostly sadder. - imposters
They share our first and
last names, but their faces and
minds are different. - it’s been a privilege
We do the same things
but get different outcomes. It’s
like the system’s rigged. - not quite hitchcockian
The audience seemed
dazed once the lights came up and
the credits rolled by. - party hats optional
She spent her birthday
under the knife and fed by
an array of tubes. - high praise from the orchestra
The brass bumped fists, the
strings tapped bows, and the woodwinds
trilled for no reason. - guess who’s coming to instagram?
The pork was simply
photogenic, while the beets
blushed under the lights. - a mind left to its own devices
Boredom should be a
crime when imagination
can sustain us all - surrounded by greatness
He was last in the
batting order and worked to
play better with less. - the invisible woman
No eyes were on her.
No greetings to welcome her.
A soul in shadows. - flash flood flash
A harmless creek swells
into a tsunami of
tumbling cars set free. - just another day during world war 3
Leaders trade barbs while
missiles strike their objectives.
Let’s watch it all die. - a slight tenor
His voice was his meal
ticket, one that fed him with
ramen and bean soup. - a cooked book
The recipe called
for 2 cups of plot and a
dash of character. - love the brazilian way
A sultry fling with
heat, passion and some sandy
settings at sunset. - the sold-out talent show
Little performers
rehearsed their modest acts to
torture their parents. - educators when time permits
Teachers are half moms,
half counselors, half wardens
and all underpaid. - fighting the nazis
Yell at them. Insult
them. Spit on them. Drive them off.
Punch them in the nose. - but what about
Stop defending the
evil forces. Start taking
care of each other. - expressway to far away
The highway will be
rebuilt, but without all those
cumbersome exits. - floral camouflage
Snapdragons lined the
forest floor, giving cover
to the wee creatures. - newton’s lol
Quietly the kids
texted absurd nicknames for
the science teacher. - molecular attraction
Oxygen had a
three-way with some hydrogen
and made a big splash. - letters in a time of unrest
He sent handwritten
missives to his beloved
while fighting back tears. - reflect to deflect
A chunk of rock casts
a mighty shadow with help
from a nearby star. - the knight at the end of this book
Each new page brought her
closer to the past, finding
love in the castle. - conversational flow
I like how she pelts
me with questions, plus answers
all the ones I ask. - accounting migraine
Cash flow barely a
trickle, struggling to make the
figures keep in shape. - harvey, wallbanger
The hurricane tore
through the gulf to pummel the
coast and its neighbors. - normalizing the new normal
The new normal is
not new nor normal. It is
fascism renewed. - a city underwater
The rain would not stop.
Streets, homes, cars flooded, buried.
The rain would not stop. - the innings that pass
They paid almost no
attention to the game while
lost in tender gaze. - 11 trillion gallons
Noah looked at the
flood, gasped and swam for safety
away from Houston. - nursing home rescue
The residents are
evacuated safely,
but what of the cats? - the home of the future today
The kitchen doesn’t
clean itself, nor the bathroom.
The maid goes to work. - will of the triumph
Our sorrows consume
our thoughts, but our blessings need
guided remembrance. - the signal
Her lips said nothing
but kiss me again and a-
gain and again and …
• • •
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Sunday, September 3, 2017, 12:06 am
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