haiku stringlengths 5 2.3k | source stringlengths 1 74 |
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for one megalithic year i fixed my gaze
on the smiling meniscus against the gray wall
of graduated cylinder | img2poems |
a truck two men one of them my son and
everything i ever owned and they
didn't even want to stop for lunch | img2poems |
as icebergs cracked into halves
as jellyfish like thoughts were
passed secretly between people | img2poems |
louis do you follow or do you fall
they said
are you short or is you tall | img2poems |
on an island an open road
where an animal has been crushed
by something larger than itself | img2poems |
it is mangled by four o'clock light soul
sour-sweet intestines flattened and raked
by the sun eyes still watchful savage | img2poems |
he said tina your body came out floating
i was born in the middle of monsoon season
palm trees tearing the tin roofs | img2poems |
all sins are an attempt to fill voids or rebuilding my grandfather's
house with hopkins in my head
as i ripped the tar and shingles off the old roof with a shovel | img2poems |
grandfather worked for years him and the welder juan wagered
each year on who would return first to the yucatan
neither did | img2poems |
he will cry without tears a broken carburetor of sobs
when i speak
spanish he shakes his head and reminds me he is the only mexican | img2poems |
my skirt rushing north
there is something round and toothless
about my dolls | img2poems |
laughing against a wall
my hair sweeps the windowsill
thighs show themselves | img2poems |
ashes in mother's hair
ashes on my baby brother
the streets are arid driven toward fire | img2poems |
if i hurry i will dance with my father before the sun sets
my slippers clicking
on a thin layer of rain | img2poems |
how i wish i could go to that woman
with her legs up and rub her feet
put liniment on her legs | img2poems |
for now our highest ambition
was simply to bear the light of the day
we had once been planning to seize | img2poems |
might it have to do with the gross
imports of crude oil bush will come clean on
only when the tigris comes clean | img2poems |
he would eftsoons get down to work
reaching into its wide-open wizen
while a helper clamped back its jaws | img2poems |
dead brain living will little pills
entangling pain with adoration of it
morphine machine whose little beep | img2poems |
simple aaaa from that a
first letter loved to hear it ache and fill
even at half breath | img2poems |
look it's standard
no one but
a divine being or two makes perfect copy | img2poems |
shed the machine
must be entirely flesh to fight
must be strategy instead of filling | img2poems |
so many shouldering forward enjambed
now cross the styx with the ease of smoke
passing through a window screen | img2poems |
depart
the shapes of things continuing for shapes
supercooled to the stillness of mortmain | img2poems |
the spell is a mouth's
perilous-o as they dark circle the boats in
their most resplendent pliable armor | img2poems |
is sometimes murderous lovelies their plotting
and resolve and why not
get these guys good the lechers | img2poems |
miss what human is like or know any end
to waters half born to from where
they look up | img2poems |
to o my god little fool's breath
triumphant all the way under and am i
not deserving | img2poems |
above his pashto prayers
but we know enough to
leave the live feed low audio is for the analysts | img2poems |
we look askew
head broken floor array light
array great distances life goals | img2poems |
staked upon every border
guardians
protections have many faces | img2poems |
misuse of the face as a streaming
desire
solution posted: get rid of all the niggers | img2poems |
glory to those who their glances lowered
marched in the sixties to abortion tables
sparing the homeland its present stigma | img2poems |
here's your mom here's your dad
welcome to being their flesh and blood
why do you look so sad | img2poems |
here's your food here's your drink
also some thoughts if you care to think
welcome to everything | img2poems |
here's your practically clean slate
welcome to it though it's kind of late
welcome at any rate | img2poems |
here's your swarm and your huge beehive
welcome to the place with its roughly five
billion like you alive | img2poems |
welcome to the phone book that stars your name
digits are democracy's secret aim
welcome to your claim to fame | img2poems |
here's your mirror your dental gleam
here's an octopus in your dream
why do you try to scream | img2poems |
here's your porch see the cars pass by
here's your shitting dog's guilty eye
welcome to its alibi | img2poems |
here are your cicadas then a chickadee
the bulb's dry tear in your lemon tea
welcome to infinity | img2poems |
here's your cemetery a well-kept glen
welcome to a voice that says amen
the end of the rope old man | img2poems |
join your word to theirs
tell him
that it is we who are important | img2poems |
perhaps such pleasures are denied
to those who never feel obliged
if there are such | img2poems |
to fear no repercussions
nor dodge
the unkind person you bug | img2poems |
round and round they go
with a ribbon and garlanded
flowers in hand | img2poems |
but soon a scream made him arise
he started and saw two eyes of flame
on his pillow from whence the screaming came | img2poems |
speaks back to the dead at km
old men in macawis beards dyed with henna
the women wearing blue jeans under black chadors | img2poems |
the ak wants to tell a different truth
a truth ungarbled that is so obvious
no one could possibly mistake its meaning | img2poems |
if you look down the cyclops-eye of the barrel
what you'll see is a boy with trousers
rolled above his ankles | img2poems |
you'll see a mouth of bone moving in syllables
that have the rapid-fire clarity
of a weapon that can fire rounds a minute | img2poems |
the english has the slightly
too-formal sound of someone
being poured through the sieve of another language | img2poems |
over there's a water tower under that's the bore hole
and here the body asks and asks about the role
it's asked to play: no matter how it's dressed | img2poems |
like a nomad like a journalist like the hyena
who eats even the bones
and shits bone-white scat from the calcium | img2poems |
and then the boy who rolls his pantlegs
up above his ankles because to let them drag along the ground
is to be unclean turns right before your eyes into a skeleton | img2poems |
/ the coming
at km a wall of leaves spits green into the air
and hangs there beautiful and repulsive | img2poems |
the tv ken doll anchor keeps complaining to their corpses
hey can't you get my flak jacket adjusted
so it doesn't crush my collar | img2poems |
the young boy with trousers rolled waits at km
before them both is a door into the earth that swings back
like a cellar door in the last century | img2poems |
here you can let yourself go in so many ways
the bomb pack strapped to your waist and detonated
by pushing send on your cell phone | img2poems |
learning untying
the knot of yes but re
writing this yes yes | img2poems |
their secret language
manischewitz she calls me for the sweetness
manitoba for the expanse | img2poems |
deer rest in snow
charcoal muzzle to charcoal hoof heads slung over
their shoulders like swans | img2poems |
will soon cool sunset winking out in my eyes and her eyes
welling in a language that once fell and rose
in drifts then melted starry she said starry into my warm coat | img2poems |
he'll sit through anything
as in days of yore he is
blooming blazing withering with his prize zinnias | img2poems |
weaned on fumes and that old
itinerant intonation air
your woes all over again | img2poems |
it was early
it was a mission
it wasn't the first | img2poems |
the wedding is over
summer is over
life please explain | img2poems |
this book is nearly halfway read
i don't have a pill for that
the doctor said | img2poems |
something little pedro always wanted to do
it's a cold day
man is garbage | img2poems |
you are trying to solve a problem
you're almost certainly halfway done
maybe more | img2poems |
you take some salt some alum
and put it into the problem
its color goes from yellow to royal blue | img2poems |
rabbi says: if one saves one butterfly even with long wings
one butterfly that has fallen into water it may be said
he has saved the whole world | img2poems |
i shout to the woman
with my inside voice
oh well | img2poems |
had been bungled sorely
we withheld our opinions sat in wait
we were good for a throwing | img2poems |
and as always
sweetly hopeful as
only women can be | img2poems |
the signature public
the only avant-garde
behind invention | img2poems |
we climbed the pasture on the south crossed over
and came down on the north
he said a thousand | img2poems |
the stranger who helps you up
wants to know you who are so used to
anything scribbled on a prescription blank | img2poems |
just want the pain to go away you say
surprised to find yourself
reaching for someone else's hand | img2poems |
and god grabbed
the little we'd been given the little we still had
and hustled on to the next dark street | img2poems |
don't ask something
with a lifespan
how to change your life | img2poems |
but mostly because they rarely spoke
of or noticed or even whispered
about and did not of course | img2poems |
as if she was his
to run
no word he said could be tamed | img2poems |
each flower and tree and bird as if to prove
a man's pursuit of knowledge is greater
than his shortcomings the limits of his vision | img2poems |
i've made a joke of it this history
that links us white father black daughter
even as it renders us other to each other | img2poems |
they lie like stones and dare not shift
even asleep everyone hears in prison
dwayne betts deserves more than this dry ink for his teenage years in prison | img2poems |
his whole family made a barricade of their bodies at the door to room
he died without the man he wanted
what use is love at home or in prison | img2poems |
in that high noon
that holds all
the freshness of the morning | img2poems |
my father who wanted your business
would squat down at your side
and sketch you a container for it | img2poems |
we speak of rebellion when the kid
is a hellion and the folks are as mild
as a spoon | img2poems |
i believe you can build a boat
i believe you can get to water
i do not believe you can get the boat on water | img2poems |
a quick check of the ocean or any fire
is a reminder of how things seem
i can't seem to see them | img2poems |
will we without the boat on water
always feel that we are missing
something basic to the picture | img2poems |
you got it
roast beef on rye
you want lettuce on that | img2poems |
you got it
no salt
you want tomato | img2poems |
yes
tomato
no lettuce | img2poems |
no no pickle
just tomato and mayo
and pepper | img2poems |
right
a little pepper
no pickle | img2poems |
or offend
luck's been no lady
truth a sneaky friend | img2poems |
crows crows crows crows
then the slow flapaway over the hill
and the dead oak is naked | img2poems |
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