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

    A Seasonably Warm Friday Afternoon at the Haikulodeon

     

     



    Here's this week's heap of haikus:


    A broken dream is
    only formed when we define
    its ending. Play on!

    ---


    Wishing for rainbows
    is fine, but refracting light
    through a prism ... works.
     

    ---


    Though she pined for him,
    she could not find a way to
    gracefully forgive.
     

    ---

    tanka haiku:

    His reading glasses
    slid right down his nose and dropped
    into the toilet.

    This disgusting dilemma,
    but he could not stop laughing.

    ---
     
    We must perservere.
    and wake again tomorrow
    to tend our gardens.


    ---


    The world cup begins
    and millions of fanatics
    aren't Americans.


    ---
     

    Stop ... Listen to me.
    Nothing will last. Got it? Good.
    Now go out and play.


    ---


    He ogled chorines;
    they danced in scanty costumes
    and flirted with him.
     

    ---


    At the sky's edges,
    mountaintops still pierce the clouds,
    to peek at heaven.


    ---


    While we were waltzing,
    I suddenly realized ...
    'She's still beautiful.'

     
     
    ---

     
    The flowers were left
    leaning 'gainst the headstone, for
    she had no prayers.
     

    ---


    Ev'ry Flea Market
    has old folks who'll wrestle you
    for Fiestaware.


    ---


     
    On Avenue A,
    scores of scrawny skateboarders,
    dodge hippies on bikes.


    ---


    tanka haiku:

    God, aren't you watching?
    Can't you see the mess we're in?
    Okay, stop laughing.

    I know. You gave us free will ...
    (We don't know how to use it.)


    ---


    A nymph that cavorts
    in a field of bluebonnets,
    has nary a care.


    ---


    reminder-ku:

    Loathsome people too,
    poesess that piece of God which,
    hides inside us all.

    ---


    Coral begonias,
    offer a stark contrast
    to large yellow mums.


    ---


    Hiding in shadows,
    waiting for the sun to set,
    and bad moons to rise.

     
    ---


     Of a sanguine mind,
    he always disagreed with
    the cynical blokes ...
     

    ---


    Try imagining
    that strangers you encounter,
    are friends from past lives.


    ---


    Coffee on the porch,
    watching kids on bicycles
    chased by barking dogs.


    ---


    Has there ever been
    a sunrise that did not hold
    the promise of re-birth?


    ---


    There will be rainbows
    that sweep across the sky when
    this storm has ended.


    ---


    Shifting winds. Light rain.
    He unzipped his coat. She closed
    her red umbrella.


    ---


    Will we be known by
    the things that divert us or
    those that focus us?


    ---


    But, what if our lives
    and all that derives, is, by
    chance, mere happenstance?
     

     
    ---
     
     


    The intensity
    of her stare made him blanch, but
    she's just near-sighted.
     


    ---
     


    (I know I posted a version of this a few weeks ago, but I decided it wasn't finished.  Now, I'm thinking of this as the first in a series about some of the lives that have entwined mine ... )


    A dozen haikus about my old landlord:


    My first landlord in
    New York was named Guiseppi.
    He loved Bustelo.

     


    He was a tailor
    in a Long Island City
    men's suit factory.

     


    He would tune in to
    Op'ra on radio and
    soccer on TV.


     

    He drank espresso;
    Bustelo espresso and
    Artichoke liqueur.


     

    He was my landlord
    for over 20 years. We
    would communicate


     

    through hand gestures for
    he spoke little English and
    I, no Italian.


     

    On late Summer nights
    he'd bring me tomatoes from
    his backyard garden.


     

    Sometimes we would sit
    jn lawn chairs in the garden
    And drink espresso.


     

    It was too bitter
    for my taste, but not for his.
    He loved espresso.


     

    Guiseppi and I
    would sometimes walk together,
    and he'd tell me jokes.


     

    Of course they were in
    Italian ... Luckily, I
    knew joke structure and

     


    laughed at the right time,
    which always seemed to please him.
    What lives entwine mine.


    ***

    Comments

    We must perservere.
    and wake again tomorrow
    to tend our gardens.

    I do not feel that

    God is watching, but I feel

    Nothingness awaits.

     

    Mortality's sure

    Even Dick Cheney will die

    Death awaits us all

     

    Voltaire had gardens

    He hid in those many groves

    to ignore evils

     

    I watch PGA

    I miss Tiger Woods but now

    I watch a German

     

    I have nothing to

    Add, but I had a little of

    Bliss at one short time

     

    Counting is so hard

    Syllabiles are not easy

    That is all I got?

     

    What the hell were we

    Talking about before I

    began my ranting?

     

    TELL ME SOME JOKES

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     


    Okay, here are 3 original jokes I made up just for you, DD....

    (Sorry, it's after 1 AM, so they may not be the highest quality, but it's all I got at the moment.)

     

    Dick Cheney and Gandhi walked into a bar.

    How does the bartender tell them apart?

    One's refused service for not wearing shoes, the other one refused to serve.

     

    --- 

     

    How many John McCains does it take to screw up America's foreign policy?

    Thankfully, we'll never know.

     

     

    ---

     

    Why did Eric Cantor cross the road?

    To get to the unemployment office.

     

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