50, 000 Deaths Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXX: "Gazans are Humans?"

too much to ask YOU 

to see Gazans as humans? 

50, 000 deaths

silenced, forgotten, buried

under the weight of daily life

NeverEnding Story, March 24 2025

FYI: Israel's oldest daily now sanctioned by the Israeli government, Haaretz, March 24: 50,000 Palestinians Have Been Killed in Gaza: This Is How It Happened, Day by Day

And Haaretz, March 24: Announcement That Death Toll Surpassed 50,000 Didn't Faze Anyone, Not Even in Gaza

Even Gazans aren't preoccupied by the number of dead these days. They're busy with questions of day-to-day survival: Will Israeli attacks become as widespread as they were before the cease-fire? Will all of Gaza be reoccupied? And who will die today or tomorrow?

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXI: "crowded shelter"

crowded shelter

layer within layer 

of hushed silence

Man in Black Haiku

store windows barred shut

footsteps of a man in black

echoing mine

NeverEnding Story, March 23 2025

FYI: For more examples, see "To the Lighthouse: Haiku Noir"

Added:

in a blue suit

the "Great One" walked onto the ice 

near the US team’s bench

with a thumbs up ...

Gretzky statue smeared with poop 

FYI: Maclean's, March 5: Goodbye to Gretzky

The cracks in Gretzky’s patriotism have been showing for years. In 2009, he was promoted to companion of the Order of Canada—the nation’s highest civilian honour—but he wouldn’t come home to accept it. “It’s just embarrassing,” Christopher McCreery, an expert on the Canadian honours system, said in 2018, after nearly a decade had passed and The Great One still claimed the honour. 

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XI

Land of the Crazed --> USA

Canada <-- Home of the Brave

giant road sign

at the corner of the border

as flocks of geese fly north

FYI: This could be read as a prequel to the following:

in Toronto sunshine

with the scent of early spring

and freedom

two Americans meet and part:

one draft dodger, one Trump evader

NeverEnding Story, March 17 2025

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XII

Uber ride home

a Trumpinator bobblehead

rattles on the dashboard

(FYI: Trumpinator bobblehead is a figurine of Donald Trump as the Terminator) 

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XIII

fast-hitting snowstorm

as Trump enacts another round

of tariffs ...

to stay or to go, this longing

to migrate to Never Land

FYI: John Koenig coined this word, Anemoia, for his book The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. It’s a pang of nostalgia for a place you’ve never been or an era you didn’t live through.

Easy as 1-2-3 When Humor Bombs

Trump Empire, Inc., IX

written in response to Bob Newhart's claim: "Humor’s a weapon if you want to make it one"

MAGA bar brawl between Trump jokes a thunderous echo-fart

floodafterfloodoftariffstaxcutMARA

King Trump's Castro-length shit-words

raising chickens for eggs

since wave after wave of DOGE cuts

I fart so often

NeverEnding Story, March 22 2025

FYI: The noun shit-word has been obsolete since its recorded usage only in the Middle English period (1150—1500) (shit-word entry, Oxford English Dictionary). Now, it's revived by King Trump.

DOGE stands for the "Department of Government Efficiency", and MARA for "Make America Rich Again."

And eggs contain sulfur, which can contribute to the sulfurous smell of gas.  😂)

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., X

wall-mounted TV

blasting Putin demands to keep

captured territories

as we buy stinky tofu ...

one adds, "including the White House"

FYI: Stinky tofu, also known as "chou doufu" in Chinese, is a fermented bean curd dish popular in China and Taiwan, known for its strong, pungent odor and unique flavor. 

The Fate of a Struggling Poet

candlelight dinner

a love haiku

gifted to my blind date

these ums and ahs

she splits every bill

down to the cent

On the eve of Lottery Day, half asleep ... and yet half awake, I hear her laugh in my laughter. 

The first rays of sunlight slant through my bedroom window. It's a serious thing: just to be alive on this fresh morning in the dream-shattered world.

Failed Haiku, 108, 2025

Four-Year-Old Self Kyoka

my wife repeats,

aim your pee-pee 

into the toilet ...

my son stops to smile at me

smiling at my four-year-old self

Failed Haiku, 108, 2025

Pre-Dawn Bombings Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXVII: "pre-dawn bombings"

written in response to The Canadian Press, March 18: Israel's surprise bombardment plunged Palestinians back into 'hell'

By midday, over 400 people had been killed. It was one of the deadliest days of the 17-month war, following two months of ceasefire.

pre-dawn bombings

light the sky with orange flares 

shatter the stillness 

set fire to a sprawling tent camp ...

sounds of Death in a child's eyes

NeverEnding Story, March 192025

FYI: FYI: "Israel's oldest daily, now sanctioned by Netanyahu, the WarCriminal , Haaretz," Editorial, March 19: Israel, Not Hamas, Is Derailing the Gaza Cease-fire and Preventing the Hostages' Return

The Irish News, March 18: Netanyahu says strikes across Gaza that killed hundreds ‘only the beginning’ And Al Jazeera, March 19: Israel’s renewed strikes on Gaza have killed 183 children

Haaretz, March 20:

The IDF announced it has begun a ground offensive in northern Gaza. The White House said that President Trump "fully supports" Israel's recent actions in Gaza. Over 710 Gazans have been killed and 900 wounded in Israeli strikes in the last 48 hours, the spokesperson of a hospital in central Gaza told Al Arabiya News.

And Haaretz, Analysis, March 21:  Israel Is Preparing to Occupy Gaza, Reinstate Military Rule and Fully Control the Palestinian Population

Israel appears to be creating a smokescreen around the government and army's true intentions. While awaiting updates on talks with Hamas, preparations are underway for a major operation to occupy Gaza

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXVIII: "bomb after bomb"

some sleep, some prepare 

for another Ramadan fast ...

bomb after bomb 

silencing all things under the roofs 

and inside makeshift tents

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXIX: "inverted red triangle"

police phalanx on campus ...

with his face painted

with the inverted red triangle

he shouts, I need no mask; I speak

from my difference

FYI: Red triangle (Palestinian symbol), Wikipedia: Since the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, an inverted red triangle has been used by pro-Palestinian protesters.[1] The red triangle as a Palestinian symbol dates back to the 1917 Arab Revolt, after which it was also used in the Palestinian flag...

Old Love Letters Senryu

old love letters

in her catch-all drawer

winter light

Failed Haiku, 108, 2025

Something New for a Day Trip, and Yet ...

Trump Empire, Inc., VII

written in response to Time Magazine, March 11: U.S. Is Added to Human Rights Watchlist

It's Trump-Free Zone

not the 51st US state

from New York

my friend trumpets with her eyes closed

face skyward, hands outstretched ...

in Toronto sunshine

with the scent of early spring

and freedom

two Americans meet and part:

one draft dodger, one Trump evader

wave after wave

lapping against the lake shore ...

the blood moon

shapes and re-shapes

our dark reflections

NeverEnding Story, March 17 2025

Note: During the Vietnam War, American "draft dodgers," most of whom were anti-war activists, evaded military service through various means, with some seeking refuge in Canada. And the origin of the name "Toronto" comes from the Huron word toran-ten, which literally means meeting place.

And BuzzFeed, "Jan. 22": Americans Share Why They Chose Canada Over The US

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., VIII

patho-cracy ...

my ESL teacher whispers

then puts her finger 

to her mouth as USA! chants 

grow loud and darker outside

FYI: ESL stands for English as a Second Language. And a pathocracy is “a system of government created by a small pathological minority that takes control over a society" 

For more details, see The Tyee, March 18: Trump and the Politics of Pathology: The strongman catastrophist summons the worst in us. 

Trump is a catastrophist. He wrecks things and then feeds on the pieces. His enablers scavenge the perks and privileges that he dispenses. He is a misanthrope. The conflict and confusion that he creates are purposeful, not incidental. It is a calculated cruelty. And it takes the combination of grievance, vulnerability, and pervasive public ignorance that allows a strongman symbol like Trump to rise to the surface by channelling these feelings into rage and the lust for retribution. It’s not the price of eggs.

Added:

no eye contact ...

a teen up and out of their shopway

this snowy morning

Added:

the beep, beep

of life on the brink

waxing crescent

in the window

of this ICU room

9-5 Job Tanka

hour by hour

one frost flower

after another

blooms on my office window ...

the ho-hum of this 9-5 job

Time Haiku, 61, 2025

Immigrant Past Tanka

to forget

or not to forget

my immigrant past ...

in the autumn wind

even clouds touch and part

Time Haiku, 61, 2025

Foreclosed House Tanka

the door

of a foreclosed house 

blown open

by a winter gust ...

inside and out this emptiness

Cold Moo Journal, February 1 2025

With the Dark Haiku

she's gone ...

alone, I sleep

with the dark

Cold Moo Journal, February 1 2025

Haiku-Boat Haiku

frog pond

the slow drifting

of my haiku-boat

Cold Moo Journal, February 1 2025

The Longest Yet the Shortest Night

Trump Empire, Inc., III:

once upon a time

Rome was a Republic ...

my teacher laments

gazing at the White House

in the gathering dark

the dumb, no,

dumbest trade war in history ...

with news on mute

I see the MAGA neighbor

piling up boxes of eggs

this storm of thoughts

in my recurring dream

King Trump's head

sliced open with nothing in it

except a wall nut

warm bedside light --

Isaac Asimov flies me

into the Milky Way

to mind-witness the fall

of a galactic empire

NeverEnding Story, March 11 2025

FYI: It might be interesting to do a thematic comparison reading of the first entry of Between Heaven and Hell to reflect on what things have changed over a short period of less than 4 months in Trumperica.

Two Americas

the White House

surrounded by a metal fence 

ten feet high ...

this is America, and yet

the other America

this chilly night

stretching thousands of miles

behind the day

November 6th, the veil thinnest

between Heaven and Hell

Not Going Back

painted in large blue letters

on the billboard

in autumn morning chill

Not crossed out with red paint

raindrops stream

down Lady Liberty's face ...

in my mind's eye

atop the White House roof

the stars & stripes upside-down

NeverEnding Story , November 4, 2024

And The New Yorker, March 8: America’s Founders Feared a Caesar. Has One Arrived?

Julius Caesar pressured the Senate, won popular support by fomenting class warfare, and sported a combover. The constitutional scholar Jeffrey Rosen discusses the parallels.

The Washington Roundtable speaks with Jeffrey Rosen, the president and C.E.O. of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit, about how America’s Founders tried to tyrant-proof their constitutional system, how Donald Trump’s whim-based decision-making resembles that of the dictator Julius Caesar, and what we can learn from the fall of the Roman Republic. Plus, how the Supreme Court is responding to the Trump Administration’s broad claims of executive power.

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., IV

in morning chill

to the clicking of cameras 

MAGA, MAGA ...

row upon rows of migrants

with hands and feet shackled

FYI: Time Magazine, March 11: U.S. Is Added to Human Rights Watchlist

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., V

plunge after plunge

the stock market bleeding ...

to reporters

red-eyed King Trump shouts,

shut up about egg prices

FYI: USA Today, March 9: Don't worry about eggs or a Trump recession. The billionaires will be just fine.

And Al Jazeera, March 11: ‘Bloodbath’: US stock market sheds $1.75tn after Trump’s recession remarks

Tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 plunges 3.81 percent, its steepest single-day loss since September 2022.

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., VI

King Trump's meaty smile ...

phalanx after phalanx

of red-hatted men

chanting, tariffs are a tax cut

Make America Great Again

FYI: King Trump's mouthpiece, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, claimed on March 11, "Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people....”

Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XXXVII

the wind blows away 

what a homeless family

left behind ...

footprint after footprint

in the snow-covered park 

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXVI: "military watch"

burning olive groves ...

the weight of thick gray and black

blanketing

over the West Bank families

under military watch

Words Half Spoken Haiku

this weight

of the words half spoken

a stone on Father's grave

folk ku, 4, 2024

Land of Milk and Honey Tanka

a lone suitcase

going round and round

on the carousel ...

I wonder what my life will be

in this land of milk and honey

folk ku, 4, 2024

Blooming Faces Haiku

blooming faces

mother's water sprinkler

spouts a rainbow

NeverEnding Story, March 8 2025

Added:

dewdrops on the tip of a leaf

the ballerina holds her pose

Added:

the tattered banner

not one woman less

not one more death

flapping in evening chill ...

a long scream cuts to silence

FYI: For more about poems for International Women's Day, see Special Feature: Selected Poems on Women Navigating Their Multi-Faceted Lives

The Poet Inside Tanka

I killed the poet

inside of me years ago ...

in shadow he takes

a long drag on his Lucky Strike

as our night shift is over

Laurels, 3, 2025

Dawn Chorus Tanka

no longer

waiting for her return

I open

the window and my heart

letting in the dawn chorus

Songbirds, 2025

Dumbest Trade War Tanka

On the Brink of Trumperica, XVIX

the dumb, no,

dumbest trade war in history ...

with news on mute

I glance at the MAGA neighbor 

piling up boxes of eggs

NeverEnding Story, March 5 2025

FYI: The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 31: The Dumbest Trade War in History

Trump will impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for no good reason.

And the following is an excerpt from Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, news conference on Canada’s response to tariffs, March 3:

So today the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend. At the same time they're talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying, murderous dictator...

I think in what President Trump said yesterday, that there is nothing Canada or Mexico can do to avoid these tariffs, underlines very clearly what I think a lot of us have suspected for a long time — that these tariffs are not specifically about fentanyl, even though that is the legal justification he must use to actually move forward with these tariffs...

We have to fold back on the one thing he has said repeatedly, that what he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that'll make it easier to annex us.

And National Post, March 4: U.S. is busting more people with prohibited eggs at the Canadian border

Between October 2024 and February 2025 at the Detroit-Windsor crossing, for instance, the field office has witnessed a 36 per cent increase in “interceptions of eggs” compared to the same time last year. 

This tanka is a sequel to the following one:

On the Brink of Trumperica, XVIII

white house blowout...

this man-child's meaty smile

in the window

as southern magnolias explode

with a mob of ravens

 

FYI: Among the [symbolically rich] trees on the White House Grounds, the oldest ones, southern magnolias, were planted by Andrew Jackson in 1829.

And PopMatters, Feb.9, 2017: The Spoiled Little Man-Child They Made King: Celebrity, Richard II, and Donald Trump.

Did Shakespeare predict Donald Trump? No. He just wrote a play about a thin-skinned, petty, self-aggrandising narcissist whose poor leadership drove an empire to ruin. 

Added: On the Brink of Trumperica, XX

one ice jam

after another, another...

shouts of trade war

FYI: The New York Times, March 4: Trump’s Tariffs Set Off Day of Anger, Retaliation and Market Unease: Global markets fell after steep U.S. tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico went into effect, and as the possible ramifications of a global trade war set in.

Added: On the Brink of Trumperica, XXI

written in response to Convicted Felon Donald Trump's longest recorded address to joint session of Congress

floodafterfloodofshitwords

Trump's Castro-length bunk

FYI: The noun shit-word has been obsolete since its recorded usage only in  the Middle English period (1150—1500) (shit-word entry, Oxford English Dictionary).

Added:

rusty nail heads

in my neighbor's fence

blast of Arctic air

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., I

The True North, Strong and Free

hard and fast

a bald eagle strikes its prey

on the ice ...

through bursts of the shutter

he captures a goose defying Death

a "colourful call"

between the Convicted Felon

and the PM

hockey sticks atop snowbanks

along the longest land border

FYI: “The true north strong and free,” originally a description of Canada in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem “To the Queen,” isa phrase from Canada's national anthem, “O Canada”, and a key part of Canada's identity. 

CBC News, March 5: a series of photos capturing this 20-minute deadly struggle about a Canada goose fighting off a bald eagle in a rare, symbolism-laden battle on the ice in Burlington, Ontario, Canada 

And The Hill, Feb.21: Trudeau after Canada hockey win over US: ‘You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game’

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., II

lineups in snow for free eggs

these distances 

of each from each

FYI: CBS News, New York, Feb 21: New Yorkers line up for free eggs in Brooklyn And Down to Earth, March 6: Chicken on rent in US as Trump asks people to grow poultry in backyard amid rocketing egg prices, A healthy hen can lay up to five eggs a week.