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

Sunday, January 19, 2025

America. Is. Back

On the Brink of Trumperica, I

America. Is. Back

southern magnolias
filtering the day's last light 
the White House in shadow

the winter sun falls
from a darkening sky
the Truman Balcony

one old man walks out
another moves in with Money
Arctic blasts



FYI: Among the [symbolically rich] trees on the White House Grounds, the oldest ones, southern magnolias, were planted by Andrew Jackson in 1829. And another southern magnolia was planted by Joe Biden in 2022.

And Wikipedia, Truman Balcony: The Truman Balcony is the second-floor balcony of the Executive Residence of the White House, which overlooks the South Lawn. It was completed in March 1948, during the presidency of Harry S. Truman...In a September 2012 interview in Vanity Fair, President Barack Obama listed the balcony as his and his wife Michelle Obama's favorite spot in the White House.


This is a sequel to the following entries of Between Heaven and Hell:

Between Heaven and Hell, III
first visual magical realist tanka

USADecides:
TheSecondDumbing 
theredhotheadline
morphsintomarching
phalanxafterphalanx


Between Heaven and Hell, XVII

once blood-stained
the Capitol's arched portal ...
in one day
the Convicted Felon will take
(the oath and) the Power


And This haiku sequence is the first entry of my new writing project, "On the Brink of Trumperica," a sequel to "Between Heaven and Hell"


All art has its share in truth insofar as it serves as a transcript of human suffering.

-- Theodor Adorno

And

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

-- paraphrasing Margaret Atwood