New Orleans Haiku
I traveled to New Orleans for the first time this spring. Thanks to the hospitality of my friend Maurice Cade and his roommate John, I was blessed with lodging and a couch that was walking distance from many of this iconic city’s cultural meccas. I truly fell in love with that town! The following haiku are some of my initial musings on the experience.
21.
Birds sang in the trees
as the band started playing-
it was 8 a.m.
22.
I love this night life
with 24-hour bars
that have laundromats.
23.
A simple greeting,
“How you doin’?” prompted a
real conversation!
24.
Music in the streets
Creole, Cajun comfort food
and all night taverns.
25.
As the trip winds down
a voice inside my head whines,
“Aw, do we have to?!”
26.
27.
There’s no welcome like
a blistering solo from
Brotha Fred’s trombone!
28.
It began to rain
as my train left New Orleans
heading back up north.
29.
New Orleans native’s
memories of Katrina
were shared over drinks.
30.
Railways and highways
slice through the bayous and swamps
but nature still wins.
31.
Why was this possum
walking out in the daylight
across Congo Square?
☆
More to come…
HAIKU OF THE DAY 03042019
The “wind chill factor”
Is an estimation of
How the cold’s perceived.
Eintou #6
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago. Photo: Getty Images
During segregation
Separate rarely was equal.
Black people were considered second-class citizens.
Jim Crow was de facto and de jure
Denial of African-American citizen’s human rights.
White folks’ inferiority complex
Is lethal!
WHITESTOWN (a Kwansaba)
Photo by Keith M. Kelley
“Whitestown”
Proudly painted
On the water tower-
On the all-white… water tower.
Must be a “sundown town.”
Black folks still need
Green Books!
ATTENTION TO GROWTH (a Blitz)
Pay it forward
Pay attention
Attention to details
Attention deficit disorder
Disorder driven by delusions
Disorder in the court
Court of law
Court of public opinion
Opinion is subjective
Opinion cares not for facts
Facts overwhelmed by fiction
Facts are based in reality
Reality television
Reality for those who cannot handle drugs
Drugs taken to self-medicate
Drugs that numb
Numb the senses
Numb the pain
Pain is a signal
Pain from trauma
Trauma begets trauma
Trauma often haunts survivors
Survivors of tragedy
Survivors of abuse
Abuse by caretakers
Abuse of power
Power perceived to be absolute
Power to the people
People make the world go round
People are followers
Followers seeking messiahs
Followers of false prophets
Prophets still exists
Prophets are not motivated by profit
Profit in the eyes of stockholders
Profit is why corporations cannot be trusted
Trusted to act in the interests of the people
Trusted to do what is right
Right is not always profitable
Right here right now
Now is the time to do the right thing
Now is the best time to act
Act like the adult in the room
Act like you know better
Better is not necessarily best
Better merely implies growth
Growth and development
Growth can be be stunted
Stunted
Development
THE DISCO BALL IN THE SULZER LIBRARY (a Sonnet)
BEHIND THE POEM: On January 2, 2019, I attended a “Write In; Read Out” hosted by the University of Chicago’s Writer’s Studio. The event featured a 4-hour writing session in the Sulzer Library followed by a 2-hour reading of participants’ work at a local pub. The Writer’s Studio projected wrting prompts and offered suggestions on way to play with language. However, I was inspired by the disco ball on the ceiling (pictured above). The following is one of the pieces I wrote.
Dangling motionless above the silence,
A disco ball hangs in the library.
A vacuum cleaner whines its defiance
to patrons focused and sedentary.
While discos have long since gone out of style,
Their glass-covered balls liven up a space
Whenever they’re spun in the light. Meanwhile
The disco ball screams that it’s out of place.
A room full of writers working on scripts.
All that’s heard is faint scratching from ink pens,
keyboard clicks, page turnings, and zippers zips.
Brought together as colleagues if not friends.
Some people nod and smile to be polite.
This place seems too quiet for me to write.
HAIKU OF THE DAY 11302018
Messenger: St. Louis woman did 20 days in jail for speeding; now rural Missouri judge wants her for 6 more months.
1.
Yet another case
Of mass incarceration
Targeting black folk.
2.
She was: caught speeding,
Did her time, and paid her fines.
But that’s not enough.
3.
The deal was bogus.
