GUY R. BEINING ant ant ant ant ant six

October 3, 2011 § Leave a comment

The Back Streets Of A Snail

:

:

billboards

pinned to the sleeve

of the highway

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we of one market

one leaf one fruit bin

await flies & rot

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washes whiter

in quiet of evening

dark creak of table

:

bring me

the room of

a swollen number

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in mock soup

& fan of turtle shell

sore-kneed Buddha

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offer pictures of mecca

while playing a dangerous

game of marbles

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bubbles that

hear flat skin of

sunfish

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heavy black glove

nearsighted & brusque a bee

breasts pressing mirror

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hand on

soiled number 9

paper off the roll

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order of night

a hyphenated thought

left in onion patch

:

inhabit this

the back streets

of a snail

:

gets you no further

from nature to circle

the tree in spanish

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white lips powders

space left by stars

fixer

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in glass rooms air

listens to itself covers

of light fall & fold

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a yellow ball from

the women in chairs opens

the crematory steps

:

draw space as maximum

silverware in her hair

& shells to eat with

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words burn

a cut above the spine

sitting on divan

:

rush hours middays other

times black band around

the sky bright eyes

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the membrane falls

from a table of ferns

stock multi-bodied

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another charred

boat has left

the dock of dreams

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open blossom or

bloom of voice

in insect light

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and invention

nefarious angles in

bitter snow drifts

:

and long white wings

the estuary on

its dark toes

:

a circle of mirrors

shut out the stars

people don’t know

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breath

the pin as ice pick

buying the night face

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colored sharpness

of wild card in

stenciled parlor car

:

go toward

the buried side

of vision

:

dire briefness of

lot pocket it even if

it blackens the soul

:

the moon is not

a number it is a landfill

a gap in the eye

:

on head of mountain

grievous we have maintained

a private clasp

:

:

LEE GURGA ant ant ant ant ant six

October 3, 2011 § Leave a comment

Adjust The Dimmer

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milkweed flowers as seen on national tv

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dollar not quite as green as the katydid

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an empty beach on the island spring

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tax day outside the post office wild plum scent

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leaves of grass something sticky on the cover

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93 million miles past the adult book store spring sunset

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spiderwort in bloom “i love you” note in the wrong envelope

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phone ringing in the dead of night a cloud of skippers

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white sand beach i fill my pockets then empty them

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after lovemaking rhubarb tarts

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just a piece of wing on the dusty road painted lady

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empty thong where i wonder who

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white chrysalis of salt on the kitchen table

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scent from the letter i adjust the dimmer

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after church a butterfly explodes on the windshield

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night rain putting on my good underwear

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forgotten today by the one true god autumn mosquito

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hardware store smell of gun oil and donuts

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the virgin mary floodwater up to her thighs

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motionless in the wind galvanized sheets bent by the wind

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brought an umbrella for once but didn’t need it

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one yellow dandelion one autumn butterfly

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day of the dead there goes my skirt

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a red plastic whistle in the withered grass

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drifting snow a pair of blue jays in the treetop

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winter solstice careful not to touch my sleeping wife

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farther than the amtrak whistle stubblefields

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the man who never married doesn’t watch

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powdered snow sifts across the county blacktop

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from time to time the dog catches up

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CHRIS GORDON year of the fire horse

September 30, 2011 § Leave a comment

Divine Craft

 

 

 

The Chinese Astronauts

Were all born in

The same fortuitous year

 

 

Their wives dress

Like stewardesses

The Chinese Astronauts

 

 

The President behind glass

To keep his germs from

The Chinese Astronauts

 

 

Made in foreign countries

Their suits are different

The Chinese Astronauts

 

 

When they hear

Helicopters it’ll be time

The Chinese Astronauts

 

 

Their hands fumble at

Pockets that aren’t there

The Chinese Astronauts

 

 

The moon is neither

Full or empty to

The Chinese Astronauts

 

 

The Chinese Astronauts

Remain outside for

About 13 minutes

 

 

If the clouds recede

We’ll be able to see

The Chinese Astronauts

 

 

The payload is still

A mystery to

The Chinese Astronauts

 

 

The Chinese Astronauts

Aren’t able to touch

Their own faces

 

 

Carried from the capsule

The Chinese Astronauts

Sit in blue fold-out chairs

 

 

Back at their day jobs

The Chinese Astronauts

Remember weightlessness

 

 

 

 

 

FUJIKI KIYOKO by HIROAKI SATO ant ant ant ant ant six

September 30, 2011 § 2 Comments

As If She Were Machinery

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In deep autumn I go on traveling unenlightened

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The scent of perfume so lively sudden loneliness

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The quiet sound of a falling mosquito resounds in my body

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Ears of wheat reveal the depth and shallows of the sea

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The day my black hair’s heavy and cold we part

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A spring evening I ride a car with an ordinary man

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Katydids my perspective gradually narrows

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A girl’s limbs are thin and wise air-conditioned

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Having got used to the depth of war I love a dog

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Summer deep I sleep the day with my own smell

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Fingerprints of desolation everywhere clouds white

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The trifoliate orange is sharp the lady’s elegant

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Oppressed by the sea in twilight I await a train

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Covered by the sounds of insects lies a brain

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Lonely spring a wife lives as if she were machinery

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The night I give up and sew the needle shines

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A white moon turns to gold above the young leaves

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Through my temples a locomotive dashes dark

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Here’s life the fruit juice amber transparent

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Early autumn’s good my veins transparent arteries pulse

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Rainy season desolate I find myself with peanut shells

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At a katydid I feel as if noon day were sinking

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With dusk slow to fall gruel’s cooking at my feet

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Knotweed growing thin falls into the typhoon zone

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A spring evening is wound down toward the apple skin

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Coming away from parting I drink hard cold water

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White noon no white letter comes knocking

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Only a horsefly’s voice annoying my ears I make unlined clothes

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Having lived single-mindedly I’ve lost my goal

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:

TOM CLAUSEN ant ant ant ant ant seven

September 30, 2011 § 1 Comment

After The Pleasant Part

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from the soil

in the shovel

a beetle crawls

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low cloud cover

early in the morning

her tight dress

:

in the tall stand

of evergreens

my cookie crumbs

:

reflections

under the bridge

a man fishes

:

without her friend

on the bus

her face

:

no one home

on the hard ground

a light snow

:

carried on

the flooded river

a beach ball

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spring

removing the neighbors

from view

:

while they investigate

the accident outside

I order pizza

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wild cherries in blossom

their land rough

with junk

:

all I know

she has a blue star

on her left breast

:

gray daybreak

her “to do” list

from yesterday

:

at 70mph

what I saw

wild turkeys

:

keeping quiet

last of the day’s light

on new grass

:

asleep

in the fallen scarecrow’s lap

a cat

:

the War

a woodchuck nibbles

beside the freeway

:

at the next urinal

he studies a tile

higher up

:

garden walk

she checks herself

in the pond

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the crow

in me

gets a response

:

dentist chair

the sun comes and goes

from the window

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cemetery

tracks in the snow

lead out to the road

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the habit of looking

where it used to be

the mirror

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on her cell phone

going into the building

“I love you too”

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on time

the daily truck load

of pigs

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after the pleasant part

of our walk

we hurry

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warm spring day

a bra

in the bushes

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the chain link fence

runs into

highwater

:

writing him

the second letter

without complaints

:

dinner over

he addresses

some crumbs

:

heavy overcast

between bench slats

a sprout

:

:

 

JON CONE ant ant ant ant ant seven

September 30, 2011 § Leave a comment

Yet She Tells You About Owls

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I look for my ax sounds of distant trains

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Horns swirling my ruined reeds

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Cup your hands hold the iron water briefly

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After the storm all morning gathering tree branches

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Wondering about the unreadable billboard I boil an egg

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Ropes and bags of sand even I remember the old garage

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Plums in a plastic bag on the picnic table the fountain lights

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On the path to the water pump sky filled with stars

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At a loss for words using bleach to clean your infected toe

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Laundry on the line grasses move in the ditch

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Stirring ashes with a stick crudely drawn phallus

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The pond is frozen hard nipples beneath your shirt

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Three pennies in a urinal full moon tonight

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Before the universe not even nothing to piss you off

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Toy truck rusts in the sandbox measureless grief

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You don’t even like her yet she tells you about owls

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The juniper is ill with mold I need new eyeglasses

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Sprouting through plastic grass seed left in the rain

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The hammer feels warm I wipe my face with a rag

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Paperbacks my glasses a change tin decorated with pin-ups

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Near the lonely summer telescope an outhouse steams

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Thunder approaches at my desk writing a letter

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Scanning the phone book you find your name

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In the barn straw dust climbs a column of light

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Summer already I catch flies with my bare hand

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By this time next year you won’t even remember why

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T-shirt wet with sweat working the lower register

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The wasp you don’t really like begins a new nest

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On the hill of flowers your ragged mouth gives me ideas

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Black angel in need of repair it’s just me lousy with tools

:

:

 

CHRIS GORDON raw nervz haiku

April 27, 2011 § Leave a comment

Misprint

:

:

in the headlights new slats on the fence your mole occluded

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covering the freeway a truck load of pumpkins magpie is a crow

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after plucking hairs from my ear the tea tastes different

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sweat from the questionable meat the monster saves the day

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apparently she decided against underwear the figs gone bad

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an unfamiliar taste to your finger what happens to the crickets

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the next day you remember Buzz Aldrin the pool closed for repairs

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in the shower I make the water hotter and notice the fly

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slow becomes owls wind a mystery with zippers

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she’s kicked me out at the fountain they discuss local politics

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after we’ve met my wife introduces us

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on a seat at the bus station torn panties some old pills

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I don’t feel the fly on my thumb sequel dubbed in English

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a misprint in her body language tear open the air to black seeds

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pale skin where the strap rested dishes drift in the sink

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trying to avoid you I run into you even more

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newspaper machines stuffed with clothing the parking lot a pond

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it hovers then flies back at me what I spit out

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objects fall the definition of silver wavers slightly

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twisting in a swing she talks on the phone about her butt

:

:

Raw Nervz Haiku X:2

:

CHRIS GORDON A Guide To Haiku For The 21st Century (1997)

April 20, 2011 § Leave a comment

Everything Comes But The Bus

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the countenance of the little girl muted distant televisions

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a purple evening in the window she folds her underwear

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snagged on the rock the water going out with the tide

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on the edge of the paper an ant the smell of rain without the rain

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diving into the shudder of darkness maybe this time

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lunacy a lost poem about an acetylene torch

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doppelganger spring a drawer of sex toys and failed medicines

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willow leaves drag against my scalp I can’t see her eyes

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morning thick and humid they forgot to turn off the streetlights

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ducks break the surface in the dark blurry crescent moons

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she’s in the shower an airplane crosses the darkness in the trees

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wind stirs the wind chimes on the porch there’s a fire

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clapping my hands I kill a mosquito find it was a moth

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the drip down the back of her thigh a mourning dove calls

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the brown dusk held by algae blooms an egret’s feather

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he washes his feet in the lake the cormorants their wings

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sheets soaked her hand draws away from my breath

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brief warm spell over thumping the outside of the pane the flies

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putting on my glasses gnats hover above my face

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weeks later her sweet voice it’s just a machine

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visible only in the shaft of light a fly her crumpled clothes

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the full moon low a dead tree its seed cones

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the dark shape of a spider wrapping a moth it starts raining

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the smell of garbage cans she asks me to keep her ring anyway

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imagining her with someone else behind the blinds the moon

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my cold foot steps on her bra still warm

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rain louder than thoughts everything comes but the bus

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still sick the tree shadows as real as the trees

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dressing afterwards her voice hardens

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winter again in my coat pocket a strand of her hair

:

:

:

selected by Hiroaki Sato for A Guide to Haiku for the 21st Century (Gendai Haiku Kyokai 1997)

JORGE LUIS BORGES diecisiete haiku (1981)

March 4, 2011 § Leave a comment

:

Afternoon. The mountain.

What they told me.

Already it’s gone.

:

The broad evening.

Nothing more than

a vague fragrance.

:

The dream that faded

just before dawn.

Was it real or not?

:

The strings grow still.

Their sound gives way

To my thoughts.

:

No comfort from

the almonds in the orchard.

They make me think of you.

:

Dimmer, dimmer.

My books, pictures, even keys.

Just like my future.

:

Since that one day

I’ve been unable to move

the pieces on the board.

:

In the desert

dawn presents herself.

Someone will see it.

:

The indolent sword

rings with its former battles.

My dream is otherwise.

:

He’s passed on,

but his chin doesn’t realize.

Each hair still growing.

:

My hand.

At times it brought about

Your horseman’s capture.

:

Under the balcony

the mirror shows no more

than the moon.

:

Under the moon

the shadow that reaches out

finds itself alone.

:

A hint, this light

that extinguishes itself,

or a firefly?

:

The new moon.

She as well sees

by some other light.

:

Barely a trill.

The nightengale’s forgotten

how to console you.

:

My old hand.

The traditional forms

bring it a forgetfulness.

:

:

Translated by Chris Gordon

JON CONE ant ant ant ant ant six

December 3, 2010 § 1 Comment

I OFFER YOU AN EYELASH

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building a stone fence a scattering of feathers

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smell of incense meat scraps in a plastic bin

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mouthful of willow rain on the shed roof rain wherever

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lifting up your dress from behind fire-scorched land

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basket filled with stones the graveyard we wandered in

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dreamed we lived in a corn maze what a curious word chthonic

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axle grease on a rag blunt ruined fingers and eucalyptus mist

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wasps by the pump only the four elements are real

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the cloud-edge on the horizon deer head in the freezer

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the shade of a hemlock I offer you an eyelash

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