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

Thursday, May 18, 2023

Palestinian Key Haiku

This Brave New World, LXXXII
written in response to the Commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba (the Catastrophe: the mass displacement of Palestinians) at UN Headquarters in New York

barrel of a gun
a Palestinian boy
holds up his key



FYI: Many Palestinians kept the keys to their homes when they were forced into exile in 1948. The Palestinian key is a potent symbol of their homes lost in the Nakba, often used in the protests. 

And for the first time in the history of the UN, this anniversary was commemorated pursuant to the mandate by the General Assembly (A/RES/77/23 of 30 November 2022). For more, visit UN, The Question of Palestine.


Addedreading between the lives and writing between the lines, LXVII

an old man 
hunched over, licks the sidewalk
then mumbles nonstop
as onlookers gather ...
should I call 911

FYI: The New Yorker, May 10, 2023: The System That Failed Jordan Neely

Meanwhile, police and corrections officers became de-facto mental-health-care providers, one 911 call at a time....According to a Washington Post database, since 2015 about a fifth of people killed by police nationwide have been in the midst of a mental-health crisis. 


Added: reading between the lives and writing between the lines, LXVIII

this unseasonal heat ...
a man in an overcoat
pushes his cart
zigzagging 
through downtown traffic