Like Father, Like Son?: A Haiku Sequence

Father’s words linger
can you put food on the table?
reading Poems to Eat

at the departure gate
Father doesn’t wave back
summer heat

first homecoming
Father sighs
your hair turns gray

reunion dinner
my niece giggles
at my Mandarin

reciting
my poem to Father
it's raining, he murmurs


published in Sketchbook, 6:4, July/August 2011


Note: Poems to Eat is written by Takuboku Ishikawa, one of Japan's most loved poets