Breadline Haiku

new snow on old snow on the breadline before passers and past passers

Haiku Avenue, 10, 2026

Breadline Haiku

the breadline lengthens

new snow on bare branches

on shoulders, too

NeverEnding Story, November 26 2025

Added: 

a row of tents

snow slipping off bare branches

clings to faces

Added:

dust to dust ...

the priest's shadow lengthens

into the grave

Added:

my eardrums

stabbed by my son's rock and roll --

this wall between us

Food Bank Line Haiku

maple-leafed wind

around the corner another

food bank line

Modern Haiku, 56:1, 2025

Grocery List Haiku

the crumpled ball

of a must-buy grocery list...

autumn deepens

Asahi Haikuist Network, Nov, 29 2024

Eviction Notice Tanka

Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XXIX

eviction notice

crumpled in my hand

I stare long

at a pile of manuscripts

in the room's far corner

NeverEnding Story, September 16 2024

Added:

a little kick

under her left ribcage --

our wedding

will be seven months

and one book away

Added: Game Show, 2024, LXV

the mural

of Trump in a Rambo pose 

surrounded by pets 

in the unseasonal heat ...

my pitbull cocks its leg

FYI: Roxane Gay, The New Yorker, September 17: The Haitian Question: The history of Haitian immigration to the United States is that of politicians on both sides of the aisle fighting to keep Haitians out of the country, with equal cruelty.

As the Haitians in Springfield bear the intense scrutiny of the world, their hopes for a good life are dwindling. Trump and Vance, with their comments, have brought a renewed and naked contempt for Haitians into contemporary American discourse. They have legitimatized this bigotry.

Added:

the tendrils

of morning sunlight

blooming wisteria

Added:

shifting hues

of summer twilight

her talk of love

Added:

I inch my car

through snarled-up traffic

a v of geese

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XCVIII: "cloudsofsmoke"

Relentless 

above

cloudsofsmoke

cloudsofsmoke

Gaza

above

smoky darkness ...

scream after scream the reasons why

all blow away 

Added:

harvest moon

behind the barbed wire fence 

a migrant's dream

reprinted in Asahi Haikuist Network, Oct. 18 2024

Depth of Absence Tanka

the depth

of this absence of home,

of belonging ...

my face in the rearview mirror

this eviction day

Cold Moon Journal, Feb. 5 2024

Eviction Notice Haiku

eviction notice ...

roof icicles 

dripping moonlight

Setu, "Masters of Wabi," 2024

FYI: Visit  Setu's Masters of Wabi: Chen-ou Liu for detailed comments

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.

Eviction Notice Haiku

my beagle

slows its pace to mine ...

eviction notice

Under the Basho, Nov. 21 2023

Writer's Block Tanka

writer's block?

Oh, I don't have time for that ...

this moonless night

becomes darker and heavier

with rent hike and snowfall

NeverEnding Story, March 13 2024

Writing, Life and Death

written in response to the Voice in Pierre's sleep: If there was no suffering, man would not know his limits, would not know himself (War and Peace, Vol. 5&6, p.35)

living side by side

with strangers in a basement

my writer friend

mutters, my mind, a logbook

of income streams and expenses

children's blood

flows beyond the pages

of War and Peace

my friend grieves the loss of passion

and of her writing dream

NeverEnding Story, December 10 2023

Added: inspired by The Independent, Dec. 11: George Clooney so badly stricken with Covid he was forced to direct new film, The Boys in the Boat,  from bed: That’s it. A tiny room. And out of that tiny room, let’s say there were 18 people there, 17 people got Covid.

Covid loves a crowd. 

It can also crash your party ...

grandpa's masked smile

FYI: BBC News, Oct. 2, 2023: Covid will 'continue to surprise us', warns health official

Covid will "continue to surprise us", England's deputy chief medical officer has warned ahead of another tricky winter for the NHS.

Dr Thomas Waite says the disease does not yet behave in a seasonal way, making it less predictable than other winter illnesses.

He encourages anyone eligible for the free flu and/or Covid vaccine to get the jabs and protect their health.

Added:

Covid surge ...

behind grandma's mask

another mask

FYI: CBC News, Dec. 8: "1 in 9 Canadian adults have experienced long-term COVID symptoms, StatsCan says": More than half still had symptoms as of June 2023

Two-thirds of Canadian adults who have tried to get health-care services for their long-term symptoms say they haven't received enough treatment or support, the Statistics Canada report said.

Eviction Day Haiku

winter branches

beaded with raindrops ...

eviction day

Wales Haiku Journal, Autumn 2023

Life as a Chinese Temp

restructuring...

my cubicle shrinks

my salary, too

look of this cashier

I set aside chips, eggs, milk...

even the rice

finding new gigs ...

in my mind's eye these faces

of landlord after landlord 

you're let go ...

this twist to the boss's mouth

in my midnight dream

The Bamboo Hut, 2, 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.

Shelter in Place Haiku

This Brave New World, XCVIII

written in response to the deadliest one of 565 mass shootings so far this year in the USA

shelter in place ...

a beer bottle rolling down

the blood-splashed road

NeverEnding Story, October 26 2023

FYI: NBC News, Oct. 26: At least 18 killed in shootings in Lewiston, Maine; Manhunt underway for suspect.

This haiku could be read as a sequel to the following one:

thoughts and prayers ...

another round of pop, pop, pop

loud and louder 

NeverEnding Story, May 25, 2022

Added: This Brave New World, XCIX

I wish I could 

take that pain off your shoulders,

off your hearts ...

round after round of gun debate 

louder ... and bloodier 

Added:

is there a map? 

in the pre-dawn silence

my first step

on this grief journey

of a thousand miles

Soup Kitchen Senryu

soup kitchen

a gray-haired man scratching

his lottery ticket

Failed Haiku, 8:92, August 2023

Van Skylight Tanka

Re-Homing in the Maple Land, VIII

the science chief declares,

fly to the moon, on to Mars

and beyond ...

the distance between stars

seen from my van skylight

NeverEnding Story, August 22 2023

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XXI

this whaling town

on the horizon

a tornado of fire

Added: No More Fairy Tales, XXII

rotating columns 

of gas and flame

disappear

into the smoky sky ...

the night grows darker and longer

FYI: CBC News, August 23: 'Incredibly rare' fire tornado captured on video by B.C. wildfire crews

"To get a fire whirl, you need an intense wildfire, strong winds, and rotation and instability in the atmosphere," Mahdavi said. "The dry, cold front that moved through last week provided all of those things as winds blew down hillsides.

100 Square-Foot Freedom Haiku

Re-Homing in the Maple Land, I

another rent strike ...

this 100 square-foot freedom

with a skylight

NeverEnding Story, August 6 2023

FYI: A queen-sized bed is 33 square feet

Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, II

a mattress 

crammed into a space

at the top

of this spiral staircase ...

now a home away from home

Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, III

this old man thanks me

and his beagle thanks me too

with its tail wagging ...

then he replies, I feel more homeless

in the shelter system

Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, IV

in dim light

this windowless closet room ("renting for $800," CBC News, May 27)

my friend's new home ...

his looks when he first came out

in the Vancouver Pride Parade

Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, V

renoviction ...

this 80-square-foot shelter

on four wheels

Cardboard Tents Haiku

snowonsnowonsnow

rowsofcardboardtents

The Pan Haiku Review, 1, 2023

MAGA Pin Tanka

a MAGA pin

on this old man's breast pocket ...

his patience 

stretched to the limit

by a breadline blocks ahead

NeverEnding Story, July 13 2023

FYI: MAGA stands for "Make America Great Again." And Democracy Now, June 28, 2023: Poverty 4th Leading Cause of Death in U.S. as Calls Grow for Third Reconstruction.

Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, says it’s “grotesque and immoral” that poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, higher than homicide and respiratory illness, citing recent findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Why do we hear so much about crime rates and opioids and gun violence in America, but poverty kills more people than all of those things?” asks Barber... 

Added:  This Brave New World, XCIII

a colorful slide

snakes down to a rectangle

of synthetic grass ...

behind the play area

stands a 30-foot high wall

Added:

alone, loading

one 20-pound crate of eggs

after another

onto skids, then onto trucks ...

hour after hour, day after day

Added: This Brave New World, XCIV

inspired by 2023 Oscar-shortlisted film, Angola, Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison

holding rifles

white officers on horseback --

row upon row

of black men in jumpsuits

working the field in summer heat

FYI: Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, is America's largest prison-plantation