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

Friday, January 10, 2025

Valley of Smoke Tanka

No More Fairy Tales, XL

the morning sun
choked out by columns of black ...
car after car 
driving through the valley of smoke
as tongues of fire leap behind



FYI: My haiku below could be read as a sequel:

No More Fairy Tales, VI

tongues of forest fires 
there's no Plan[et] B, the rest
blah, blah, blah ...



Added: No More Fairy Tales, XLI

the morning sun barely seen street after street charred by the frames


Added: No More Fairy Tales, XLII

tongues of L. A. fires
getting wild and wilder
with raging hate and lies ...
a raven's kraa-kraa-kraa
atop the Mar-a-Lago flagpole


Added:

patches of fog
shroud this orphanage ...
un/knowing the past


FYI: This haiku could be read as a sequel of my haiku below:

jigsaw puzzle:
group-home kids piece together
“American Dream”

Touch of a Moth: 2012 Haiku Canada Members' Anthology
(Note: American Dream is FX Schmid's award-winning 750-piece jigsaw puzzle)

hand-me-down dream
twilight laughter drifting
from the orphanage