Library senryu

public library -
a classmate grabs my leg from
under the bookcase.

**************************
school librarian -
my classmates tease her, asking
for smutty books.

**************************
school library helper -
another barrier
between me and boys

******************************
second hand books
from charity shops
my private library.


Libraries for Booking Through Thursday

Wordstorm

for Sigitas Parulskis

a Slavic sounding
avalanche of poetry

even though i recognise the word
transvestite
in the original

the translated poem
still takes me
unawares.


(Sigitas Parulskis, Gintasas Grajauskas and Eugenijus Alisanka, three Lithuanian poets read at the Edinburgh International Book Festival earlier today).

August

In August heat
.............we see
...............from every crossroad
.............a funeral procession winding
..........through narrow hillside streets
..or perhaps it is several processions
for several funerals

so many people are dying now

under a bridge
a thousand miles from here
in the place that was his living home
a dead man hangs

Reflections on Leaving

She keeps her eye on the rear view mirror
he could easily hide among so many cars
but as the road behind her empties
bright as the red glow of sunset
she feels her heart begin to lighten
as the road ahead becomes the future.


What we leave behind for Easy Street Prompts

The Eternal Optimist

Always suffering:

Playing in the garden of a sinister house
with sinister trees.
Running down a blood wet street
pursued by fear.

Always a violent death:

Knives, machetes, napalm, burning homes,
machine guns; alone
on the deck of a capsizing boat
in uncharted seas.

Always reincarnated.

Lost Stuff for Totally Optional Prompts

More Lost Stuff over at Crafty Green Poet