Golfball-Brained Man and Inflation Tanka

Politics of Distraction, XIII

this golfball-brained man

behind the Resolute Desk

loves inflation ...

a MAGA sign, Donald Trump

                              $20,28 per gallon

The New Verse News, June 12 2026

FYI: The Hill, June 10, 2026: Trump embraces May price spikes amid Iran war: ‘I love the inflation"

“No, I love it. The numbers were great,” Trump said when asked if he was concerned about the latest data, which showed the consumer price index rising to 4.2 percent over the past 12 months — with an increase of 0.5 percent in May alone, according to the Labor Department.

...The CPI data also showed that energy prices spiked 3.9 percent in May after having risen 3.8 percent in April and 10.9 percent in March. 

Added: Politics of Distraction, XIV

smoky haze ...

the 40th deal to end

the war of this wor(l)d

FYI: ABC News, June 16: US-Iran agreement confirms Trump trend on the art of the deal

The agreement between the United States and Iran fits with a pattern from Donald Trump where the signing of a deal appears to be the major goal and the details often seem a distant secondary consideration. 

Stock Ticker Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCVI: "stock ticker "

a bruised girl’s hand

clutches a slice of bread

in pixels—

a stock ticker flashes past

Lockheed Martin up red-hot

NeverEnding Story May 25 2026

FYI: "Israel's oldest daily, Haaretz," which was was sanctioned by the Israeli government on Nov. 24, 2024

May 24 2026: Israel's Destruction of Gaza Mapped Using Digital Archive of Wartime Footage

Built from geolocated videos, photographs and social media posts, the website – called Genocide Live – compiles footage of Israeli airstrikes, military manoeuvres, and destruction from across Gaza, the West Bank and the wider regional war, including in Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Qatar.

May 25 2026: Humanitarian Conditions in Gaza Deteriorating Again, Aid Groups Warn

The groups report a resurgence in malnutrition among Gazan children, as well as deaths resulting from a failure to provide medical evacuations, collapsing sewage systems, a spike in pest infestations and a serious shortage of medical equipment, among other problems.

And Kavout, Stock Analysis: Is Global Conflict Driving a New Era for Defense Stocks

Key Takeaways

Global defense spending, now at an estimated $3 trillion, is surging due to escalating geopolitical tensions, creating a robust tailwind for defense contractors and drone technology firms.

Lockheed Martin (LMT) offers investors a stable, blue-chip play on this trend, benefiting from strong demand for its established platforms and a substantial backlog, despite its premium valuation.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCVII: "Eid al-Adha"

Eid al-Adha

shrouded in smoky dust

armless Gazan child

FYI: Eid al-Adha (May 26–30) is the Feast of Sacrifice, the largest of the two main Islamic festivals celebrated worldwide. It is traditionally marked by clean clothes, festive meals, and charity.

Added:

her only son's photo

as he was

Memorial Day

Added:

in breezy sunshine

tulip bulbs tucked in the earth

last autumn

begin to murmur awake ...

will our hope for peace take root?

FYI: Vision of Humanity: Highest number of countries engaged in conflict since World War II

Added:

the edge

of this dappled trail

shadow and me

Added:

gazing out

at this borderless spring sky 

thoughts pass through

Added:

kitchen secret

in the slanted moonlight

onions unpeeled

Added:

half-sleep, half-wake 

my hand across the bed

finds a hollow

Added:

sultry beach night

my body finds the spot

where hers once lay

Added:

solar eclipse

a church bell’s echo slips

into the dark

Click, Clicking Sound Haiku

the click, clicking sound

of my neighbor's garden gate

foreclosure tilted

5-7-5 Haiku Journal, December 17 2025

Law Is King

Trump Empire, Inc, XC

written for No Kings protests

just a dream, and yet ...

the mountain lion roars

to grazing sheep:

once elected as your King

I'll be vegetarian

the peanut-brained man

behind the Resolute Desk

grins to cameras,

just a little excursion...

oily clouds over Tehran

how much bullshit

can come out of one ass-hole

a veteran’s refrain

cracks and booms through iron bars

at the White House gate

the Capitol fence

shadowed against the sky

in twilight chill

lineups snake at the pumps

and at food banks too

chant after chant

of eggflation, fried truth

scrambled justice ...

a mutt's neck sign: I can poop

a better president

FYI: The title alludes to the famous quote from Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense: In America, THE LAW IS KING.

NeverEnding Story, March 28 2026

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, XCI

the stacking

of KKK hood, MAGA hat

and ICE cap ...

my beagle takes a dump

it steams the same in the snow

Added:

A 22-foot golden statue of Donald Trump looms at his Florida golf resort. 

from the statue

a flicker of sunlight —

seagulls drop white

FYI: This senryu-inflected gembun is written in response to MS Now, May 11 2026: Trump celebrates unveiling of 22-foot Don Colossus statue at Miami-area golf course

“For more than a year, the golden statue has been at the center of one of the stranger moneymaking ventures of the Trump era,” the New York Times noted. “A group of cryptocurrency investors paid $300,000 to have a sculptor create it as a tribute to Mr. Trump, an outspoken crypto proponent. Then they used it to promote a memecoin called $PATRIOT.”

Added: Politics of Distraction, IV:

An Elegy

Silhouetted against twilight, the façade reads:

"The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts"

across slabs of vein-streaked marble.

will the past be past?

redbud petals curl inward

this spring equinox

FYI: L1 of the haiku alludes to a famous assertion by William Faulkner:

The past is never dead. It's not even past.

This line, from Requiem for a Nun, resonates with historical context: Faulkner’s work was deeply admired by President John F. Kennedy, who, following Faulkner’s death in 1962, led national tributes stating, "Since Henry James, no writer has left behind such a vast and enduring monument to the strength of American literature."

In the haibun, the literary ghost/Faulkner reference in L1 functions as a structural haunting, bridging the weight of prose with the delicacy of haiku.

In literature, ghosts rarely just haunt—they speak. A "literary ghost" is one such spirit: a text, a phrase, or an idea from the past that refuses to stay buried. Unlike a simple allusion, which nods at another work, a literary ghost inhabits a new piece, creating a spectral presence that shapes meaning, mood, and memory.

Where an allusion informs, a literary ghost haunts. It can transform names, places, or words into conduits of history and memory, making the familiar feel strange, uncanny, and alive.

For more about the use of literary ghosts, see To the Lighthouse: Literary Ghost, A "Specific and Powerful Type of Allusion"

Trade War News Haiku

yellowing leaves 

astir in the night wind ...

trade war news

Fireflies' Light, 32, October 2025

Trade War News Haiku

trade war news

a spiderweb on the eaves

sagging with raindrops

Prize Winner, 27th Haiku International Association/HIA Haiku Contest

Judge's Commentary: The first line is clearly topical, a concern of the moment, while what follows is natural, observed. The spider’s web is, I imagine, on the eaves outside the poet’s house, where the heavy raindrops gather and threaten to destroy it. The web is the spider’s lair and means of existence, yet one that may soon give way. Our lives too are delicately wrought, and may be easily disrupted. In the meantime we can admire the light refracted in the glittering raindrops, before they fall. I note the syllable count of 3-7-5.

First Trillionaire Haiku

This Brave New World, CXXVI

first trillionaire ...

my son counts on his fingers

the zeros 

NeverEnding Story, November 8 2025

FYI: Times of India, Nov. 7 2025: Path to world’s first trillionaire: Tesla clears $1,000,000,000,000 pay package for Elon Musk

And The Guardian, Nov. 7, 2025: ‘Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk’ – why investors are happy to pay him $1trillion

Making Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire appears to fit a US investment culture of backing high-flying innovators

Added:

the front porch

bathed in autumn sunset glow

between us, not a word

FYI: This is a sequel to my haiku below:

hillside maples

the sunset glow redder

... and redder

NeverEnding Story, October 27 2025

Added:

a raven's cry 

stretched across the sky

cloud avalanche

Added:

edge of the dog park

a teen and her beagle

in a cardboard tent

Added:

another cup

of black coffee ...

first snowfall

Foreclosure Tanka

at 3 a.m.

I'm sleepless yet again

and my neighbor's lights

are also on ...

Foreclosure tilted in moonlight

Quail Eggs, 1, 2025

Against Trumpinator

Trump Empire, Inc., XVII

patho-cracy ...

my ESL teacher whispers

then puts her finger 

to her mouth as USA! chants 

grow sharp and darker outside

wecan'twaitfor 

$5, 000 made-in-USA

iPhones. iPhones now ...

flanked by a spray of flags

red-hattedTrumpists shouting

 

tariffs, a tax cut 

for working Americans

louder from TV

in gathering dark, she mutters

my 401K, now 401

Land of the Crazed --> USA

Canada <-- Home of the Brave

a giant road sign

at the corner near the border

as flocks of geese fly north

in Toronto sunshine

with the scent of early spring

and freedom

two Americans meet and part:

one draft dodger, one Trump evader

Hands Off Rally:

chant after chant of fried truth

eggflation

scrambled justice, poached rights,

cracked democracy... Trump, Fuck Off

NeverEnding Story, April 8 2025

FYI: Trumpinator,  Donald Trump as the Terminator, is a MAGA codeword.

ESL stands for English as a Second Language.

The Polish psychiatrist Andrew Lobaczewski coined this term, "pathocracy," to describe a type of governance by a small pathological minority that takes control over a society. 

And a 401(k) is a retirement savings plan in the US

Note: My translation project, NeverEnding Story:First English-Chinese Bilingual Haiku and Tanka Blog,  reached a new milestone yesterday at midnight:

the HIGEST daily page views, 23, 802

on the windowsill

two bluebirds singing

to each other

I tweet and retweet

"NeverEnding Story" (most-read haiku and tanka poetry blog) 👍

Now, it calls for haiku and tanka submissions. See the guidelines here.

We read to know we're "not alone."

-- The character of C.S. Lewis in William Nicholson's play, "Shadowlands" 

The proper response to a poem is "another poem."

-- Phyllis Webb 

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XVIII

White House news on mute

shaft after shaft of sunlight

through rainclouds

Added: the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXIII: "15 aid workers executed"

aid workers bound and shot

the s t  r   e  t   c    h of silence

after silence

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., XIX

the stocks rocketing

downward, upward, downward ...

Trump brags, kissing my ass

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.

Grocery List Haiku

the crumpled ball

of a must-buy grocery list...

autumn deepens

Asahi Haikuist Network, Nov, 29 2024

Spiderwebs Haiku

spiderwebs

in the slanted moonlight

foreclosure sign

Kokako, 41, 2024 

Budding Snowdrops Haiku

budding snowdrops

in my old neighbor's garden

For Sale sign

Cafe Haiku, August 10, 2024

Moonlit Dark Haiku

the neighbor's garden
fading into moonlit dark
a foreclosure sign

NeverEnding Story, October 4 2024

Added:

three glasses down

the lingering smell

of his apology

Reprinted in Asahi Haikuist Network, Nov, 29 2024

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CII: "between fireballs"

calm between fireballs ...

moonlit ravens' kraa-kraa-kraa

darkening

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CIII: "Israeli settler"

First Three-Line Visual Tanka

          under        slate-gray            skies

                                 |                          

a settler aims his gun | a boy throws his rock

                                 |

          tank track marks on the grass

FYI: The "single vertical line" has become the standard format for tanka written by the Japanese poets since the latter half of the 19th century; However, Ishikawa Takuboku, author of Poems to Eat and Romaji Diary and Sad Toys,  advocated for and started writing two or three lines, depending on the rhythm of each tanka. For more, see Hiroaki Sato, “Lineation of Tanka in English Translation,” 42 Monumenta Nipponica 3:347-56, Autumn 1987.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CIV: "scream after scream"

a scythe of lightning 

in Beirut's smoky orange sky

scream after scream cut off

FYI: Reuters, Oct. 6: UN refugee chief says airstrikes in Lebanon have violated humanitarian law

Rent Hike Senryu

another rent hike ...

one more dip into the bank

of Mom and Dad

Failed Haiku, 9:100, 2024

Sound of Surviving

Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XVIII

I deliver

four rapid jabs, then a right

at my rival ...

the blood dripping off

my shadow on the wall

another

defeat by greedflation

and rent hike ...

I yell out, I want to feel

alive in this broken world

NeverEnding Story, March 23 2024

FYI: The last two lines allude to the following poem, “Invitation” by Mary Oliver

it is a serious thing

just to be alive

on this fresh morning

in the broken world.

Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XIX

brick bungalows

with sea-green roofs and skylights

now gut-renovated ...

three blocks away, migrants move 

in and out of rooming houses

Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XX

this riot

of colorful blooms ...

at the corner

of my neighbor's garden

a sign: backyard suite for rent

(Note: XIX and XX are integrated into the following tanka sequence:

O Canada! Our home and native land!

this riot

of colorful blooms ...

at the corner

of my neighbor's garden

a sign: backyard suite for rent

brick bungalows

with sea-green roofs and skylights

now gut-renovated ...

three blocks away, migrants move 

in and out of rooming houses

clothes flap on the line

and whales breach through blue waves ...

four new temps

in the second-story window 

of a saltbox house

wave upon wave 

of prairie grass cascading

over the hillside

a rented cabin, my new home

in this promised land 

FYI: In Feb., 2022, a new ruling made it officially legal for Toronto residents to build "backyard or garden suites" (a little bigger and more furnished than the outdoor/yard sheds one can buy in The Home Depot) as a "form of housing" (because of the crisis of affordable rental housing)

And usually built between 1800 and 1850 in Newfoundland and Labrador, a saltbox house has two stories in the front but one in the back,  giving it an uneven roof that is steeper one side).

Added: Game Show, 2024, XLI

chants of USA!

listen, repeat after me

ge-ron-to-cra-cy

FYI: Pew Research Center, 118th Congress (with only 10% -- 20% approval ratings) of the Oldest democratic country: The Senate’s median age is 65.3 years and the House's median age is 57.9 years. And in total, 98% of all incumbents were re-elected; most Big Shot Politicians are close to or over 80-year-old.

Housing Bubble Senryu

this talk

about a housing bubble ...

popcorn popping

Croatian Translation

taj razgovor

o cijenama nekretnina...

pucanje kokica

Iris International, 9, 2023

Santa Ana Winds Tanka

Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XV

chilly night again ...

rent hike, food inflation

and salary freeze

bring Santa Ana winds

on the embers of my desire

NeverEnding Story, November 12, 2023

Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XVI

these gray rain clouds ...

I bounce from job to job

and later move

from basement suite to attic 

with a broken skylight 

Added: Game Show 2024, XXIX

my pitbull

chasing her Siamese cat ...

Trump on TV blasts

If you go after me

I'm coming after you!

FYI: The New Yorker, Nov 9: The Warnings About Trump in 2024 Are Getting Louder

This was the week, to mangle a phrase, when people finally freaked out about Donald Trump becoming President again. “Whichever individual poll you choose to believe or not,” Susan B. Glasser writes in her latest column from Washington, “the data point overwhelmingly to Biden sitting at near-historic lows in popularity and being essentially tied with Trump, a man who is running on an explicit platform of revenge, retribution, and Constitution-termination.

And CNN, Nov. 10: ‘That’s insane’: CNN panel on what Trump said he would do if re-elected

“CNN This Morning” panel discusses Donald Trump’s interview with Univision, in which the former president hinted he would weaponize the Department of Justice against political enemies if re-elected.

Staring Contest Haiku

a staring contest

with myself in the store window ...

red-tag food prices

Plum Tree Tavern, April 26, 2023

Interest Rate Hike Tanka

another

interest rate hike ...

this snowy night

alone in TV's light

with a microwave meal 

Gusts, 37, Spring/Summer 2023