Chen-ou Liu's Translation Project: First English-Chinese Haiku and Tanka Blog

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Thoughts and Prayers & Traces of Blood Haiku

thoughts and prayers ...
the ground stained with traces of blood
three times in two weeks


FYI: The year-by-year list of mass shootings in the United States.

There's much more that Congress can do to help that effort. And they can do it right now, They've offered plenty of thoughts and prayers — members of Congress — but they've passed not a single new federal law to reduce gun violence...

Enough prayers. Time for some action.

-- Joe Biden, April 9, 2021

Added:

under a painting
of the Callaway plantation
the governor's name
inscribed in the ironclad
voting rights law

FYI: This poem is a sequel to the following tanka written for Black History Month, which is "celebrated" in North America in February

Emory President praised
the three-fifths compromise ...
on the sun-tanned backs
of a row of black students
This is 5/5 outrageous