The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
MrSmith1's picture

A Hauntingly So-So Friday Afternoon at the Haikulodeon

 

 

Here's this week's heap of haikus:

 

Up against the wall
she's haunted by images
tattered and tawdry

(Photo courtesy of me.  I took it in Oklahoma City in 1972.  Since then,the wall's been torn down, the girl and I broke up, she got married, had 5 kids and is now a successful artist and  grandmother.   I left the camera in a NYC taxicab about 30 years ago.  Only memories, and this photo, remain to keep things as they were.)

 

---

 

(More from the series, At Rest:)

 

Hidden by some trees,
a colonial graveyard ...
ancestors at rest.

 

(Photo courtesy Tom Contrino)

 

---

 

Sad to admit, but;
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. killed off
The Girl in H.E.R.


(Photo courtesy Tom Contrino)

 

---

 

Josias Maxwell
started out life as odd, but
ended up even.

 

(Photo courtesy Tom Contrino)

 

---

 

The art of tombstones
means you're often dealing with
graven images.

 

---

 

"Yo, Fluffy ain't here
no more.  We's runnin' de joint.
We're Gangsta Kitties."

 


(Photo courtesy of Kristina Rebelo)

 

---

 

Masochist? Moron?
What's your excuse for voting
for Republicans?

 

---

The teacher threw a
book at the sleeping pupil.
Knowledge can hurt you.


---


Tell me, did Renee
Zellweger join the Witness
Protection Program?


---


Hush little baby.
Crying upsets those who've learned
to put up with shit.

 

---

 

We may never know
what winds blow thoughts through our minds,
which swirl up our past.
 


---

 

When you have a lot
that's on your mind, let your day
begin quietly.

 


---

 


A humid morning,
across the street, some workers
sip coffee and smoke.

 


---
 

 

From whimsey to snark,
our sense of humor's evolved
in a funny way.

 

 

---
 

 

tanka hai-clue-less:

 

Ev'ry so often
he got a prank call that he
did not understand.

Why would teenage boys care if
Prince Albert was in the can?
 

 

 
---


 

At the O.K. Corral,
The Clantons found living in
Tombstone can hurt you.

 

---


Sweet love's gone away.
Where I do not know.  I just
pray she will return.


---

Though snow has fallen,
please keep this one fact in mind;
it can not get up.

 
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Tis no surprise that
loveliness knows loneliness;
looks intimidate.

 


---

 


Sunday ev'ning and
I dread the week to come; full
moon and rising tides.

 
 

---


 

Dad stumbled upon
the marble his son misplaced ...
Quite a somersault.


 

---
 

 

 

Stubble on my chin
Clothes I've worn for two full days ...
Still sick as a dog.

 

 
---

 

 

Fragrant aromas
awaken sweet thoughts of you
my long ago love.


 

---


 

I nervously wait.
The doctor studies my chart.
Will there be good news?

 
 

---

 

 

alliterative tanka haiku:
 

Pa peddled papers,
Ma mostly mixed martinis.
Sis sewed sombreros.

I, inadvertently, inked,
(in innocence), irked insights.

 

---

 

 

 tanka haiku:


Ev'ry circumstance
is an opportunity
to learn and to grow.

Do not shrink in fear, step up
to the plate and swing away!

 

 

---

 

On a moonlit night,
in a cottage near the dell,
at last, he knew love!


---

 


Strolling through the park,
I can feel my focus shift.
Nature affects me.

 

 

---

 

Anguished and in pain,
she never thought that her life
would end up like this.
 
 
 
---
 
 

 

Pies on windowsills
send aromas wafting through
the nearby schoolyard.
 

 

---

 

A bowl of walnuts,
sits on a coffee table,
made from relatives.

 

---

 

Whispering your name,
in my darkest moments, gives
me soothing solace.


---

 

 

 

Has our course been set?
Options eliminated?
Make that U-turn now!

 

 

---

 

More than what's needed
is the downfall of all things,
( and why balloons burst.)

 

 

---

 

 

Fear's like a radish;
small bits spice things up, but too
much will make you sick.

 

 

---

 


He's close enough to
stare, and old enough to know
what's worth staring at.

 

---

 

One of the special
things about autumn are the
honey crisp apples!

 

****

 

 

 

 

Comments

Love "Sunday Eve'ning". Nice work, Smith.

 

Here's a contribution.

 

Red state religion;

Matt, Mark, Luke and Wyat Earp;

Guns and Jesus---Christ!

 

Creation theme park.

God made little green apples;

Feed the dinosaurs.

 

Liquidity, blah,

Bonds, blub, stocks, blap, hedge funds, blip;

Dirt's dirt cheap right now.

 

Grand Canyon, Mesa,

Apache Junction, Scottsdale,

Patagonia?

 

Dessert forks languished.

It's unimaginable!

Left-over cobbler.

 

Doors should be opened,

Especially for pizza.

Super---not supper.

 

Troves of poison oak,

Grandpa died a pedophile;

tombstones can hurt you.

 

Love should conquer all.

Except--- Don't side-swipe my car,

you jerk--- where was I....

 

 

 

 


Nicely done, Oxy!!

I can't read the words "God made little green apples" ... without recalling a moment 44 years ago.  It was the Summer of 1970 and I was on a USO tour of the Orient.  We had just arrived at our first stop, Seoul, Korea.   My fellow cast members and I walked into an Officer's club and there was a Korean house band playing onstage... the singer was singing a Bobby Goldsboro song that went, God didn't make little green apples and it don't rain in Indianapolis in the Summertime.... Except, the singer not only had a lisp, but also the stereotypical dialect that substitutes L's for R's and vice versa....  So, the lyrics came out as "God didn' make ritter gleen appers and it don't lain in indiappers in de Summatime ...   The next day, on our ride to the one of the bases to do our show, we all started singing the song in exactly the same way.   We were all laughing and singing so hard, our bus driver almost missed the turn-off for the base.  


Thanks, Smith, I remember those Officer clubs in the Pacific. The bands were very entertaining. Next to the base were the dance clubs, very funny, dime-a-dance ladies, fraternity house furniture, and a litany of sailor- jokes in sparse English. My CO who thought I was cutting in one night pulled me aside---"...get this straight, Oxy, it's rank before money."


Near Yokosuka naval base.

 

At the Kanko Club,

Suntori and dancing girls.

Twenty five cents, neh?


I think we initially stayed in Yongsan.   Our first trip into Seoul was a bit weird.  We had a beautiful blonde dancer in the troupe and she was followed around wherever we went as if she was some combination of rock star and unicorn ...
 


Gangster Kitties don't
play with little mousey toys
when someone's watching


Excellent, VA!!

 

Gangsta Kitties don't

tell you they peddle catnip

near schools of fishes.

 

---


You are just getting

Just too much attention as

Of late and I care

 

I mean, what the hell

Is all this then? So to speak?

I count on fingers

Counting on fingers

Is just so  ridiculous

I am a grown man

So I count on my fingers?

Where did that come  from?

Question marks are real.

Halloween is nigh

Halloween is just stupid

I aint buyin sweets

What the hell this means?

Well, I see tombstones again

We all will soon die!

hahahahaha


Streams of consciousness

flowed from his fingers like an

old garden sprinkler ...

   But never mind that.  The guy

   makes me laugh.  That's all I've got.

 

 

 


Halloween.

 

At that Dick Day house.

Don't count on butter fingers,

you're gettin' cough drops.

 

Mr Day, i love your rants, which always contain a truth. Yes, in this life the only things that are real are question marks.   


Hi Oxy!

You know I did not include you when I discussed Vasco in my Columbus rant.

Forgive me please.

You were and are always there for me.

hahahahaha

Oh and I live in an old folks residence as it were. No nursing or such, but I will have a bag of naughty bits as it were. just in case. hahahah


Hey, Mr. Day. Naughty bits for the per chance encounter. Now that's a useful concept.

Best to you, friend.


Happy Halloween from Florida.  


Fluorescent shadows
play pep talk in the blue room.
Time cards hide in slots.


GPS guru
croons didactic urgency;
The exit is near.

 

His stare unnerved me.
Scarecrow smiles after spotting
my easy panic.


Excellent, moat!!

GPS lady:

Approaching destination...

Eh, what does she know?

 

---

 

I thought up this one on my ride to work today:

 

Mortally wounded,

he nevertheless tried to

remain positive. 

 


 


Perhaps the lender

Would refinance the old loan.

Hello! Is Faust in?


Ha!!   Excellent, Oxy!


Mephistopheles
brings fresh blood to the old game:
Personal Banking.


HA! 

We're Brimstone Bank, When

your assets have gone to Hell, 

we have a branch there....
 


Leaves let loose their grip,

glide with dignity onto

beds of winter grass.


Ooooo, Nice one!!


He subtracted her.

Coldly, methodically, he

sliced the equation.


Ah, good one, barefooted!!

 

Global crisis fixed;

coldly, methodically he

spliced the equator.

 

---

 


 


Coefficient hearts
treat variable factors
as a finite set.


Good one, Moat.

(my lame response deleted)


Muscles intertwined,

afraid of suffocation

they refuse to breathe.


Excellent barefooted!!

 

Their bodies entwined,

passionate kissing nearly

suffocating them.

 

 

 


That is a great one, moat!

 

Happy is the heart

that varies not in knowing

it's a treat to beat.
 


This scientist's eyes
read what you wrote and his brain
said to laugh out loud


Good one, VA!
 


Shift-Enter inserts
New line without extra space
In case you wondered


Computer advice in haiku form!! Genius!  (Thanks for the tip!)


The rocket blew up.

I didn't know as I gazed

at an empty sky.

The night before that,

my view was obstructed by

an errant sailboat.


Nice ones!!

Now they're seen, now not ...
Errant ships of sea and sky,
don't know how to please ...

 

.
 


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