“Great day” I say,
my neighbor, not to be outdone, says,
“Best one yet”
– Frank Robinson
**
The laugh’s on me:
this year’s man
is last year’s man
– Ching-An
**
on the freeway
discussing the chocolate bar
in the trunk
– Dee Evetts
**
The last kid picked
running his fastest
to right field
– Mike Dillon
**
deadline approaches
my nose drips
faster
– John Stevenson
**
radio interview
the candidate
adjusts her hair
– Hilary Tann
**
even with the mikes on
the politician
shouts
– Anita Virgil
**
She’s running for office-
for the first time
my neighbor waves!
– Alexis Rotella
**
neighbor’s children leave…
casually the cat slips out
of the hall closet
– Patricia Neubauer
**
birdsong
my imaginary lover
alive again
– Yu Chang
**
300 miles away-
my father makes sure
I hear him sigh
– Alexis Rotella
**
remote village
after the camera’s click
her smile
– Ruth Yarrow
**
Undressed-
today’s role dangles
from a metal hanger
– Alexis Rotella
**
channel dispute
she aims the clicker
at me
– Dee Evetts
**
nothing good on t.v.
every channel
for about three hours now
– John Sheirer
**
three times I’ve said
“your husband…”
now we can just talk
– John Stevenson
**
safe for a while
around the haiku poets
a fly
– Mykel Board
**
his dust mask
a hole poked through it
for the cigarette
– Dee Evetts
**
bad movie
I’m only awake
during the explosions
– John Sheirer
**
table for one
the waiter doesn’t
light my candle
– Bruce Detrick
**
in the breakdown lane
I contemplate
my life
– John Sheirer
**
new flypaper
she waves her arms
she waves her arms
to get them going
– Dee Evetts
**
strap hanging
a top view
of his careful hairdo
of his careful hairdo
– Karen Sohne
**
first cold night
the fat tomcat hangs from
the window screen
– Carl Patrick
**
road construction
my life
still under construction
– John Sheirer
**
his “eyeball it”
for the rest of our days
a crooked wall…
– Carol Montgomery
**
turning down the t.v.
to hear more
of the neighbors’ argument
– John Sheirer
**
my easy heart
two drinks
and it’s love
– Michael Ketchek
**
checking the driver
as I pass a car
just like mine
– John Stevenson
**
loud applause
for the last speech
before lunch
– Dee Evetts
**
while I’m gone
my dog
takes the driver’s seat
– Christopher Herold
**
Clear about
everything
the window washer
– vincent tripi
**
20,000 feet
traces of masking tape
on the jet engine
– Dee Evetts
**
Empty school bus;
smile on the face
of the driver
– Garry Gay
**
bags
under his eyes-
traveling salesman
– Michael Dylan Welch
**
Weight lifter
slowly lifting
the tea cup
– Garry Gay
**
single living
I allow the kettle
a full whistle
– Carmen Sterba
Oscar night
adjusting the cuffs
of my pajamas
– John Stevenson
**
the men on both sides
have taken
my armrests
– Karen Sohne
**
inserting a piece
in my jigsaw puzzle
the TV repairman
– Francine Porad
**
paint by number
the child’s river
escapes its bank
– Tom Painting
**
my nephew’s fast ball-
I hand back the glove
and keep the sting
– Barry George
**
morning commute-
recognizing
most of the strangers
– Dorothy McLaughlin
half-empty bed
I try to recall
his faults
– Peggy Heinrich
**
war begins-
my husband and I
stop bickering
– Margaret Chula
**
mid morning bus
no one young enough
to give up their seat
– Sheila Butterworth
**
game over
men turn to leave
the tv department
– John Stevenson
**
on my dying bed
a neighbor reads out
the ball scores
– H.F. Noyes
**
January 3rd
the Weight Watchers meeting
doubles in size
– Carolyn Hall
**
store window
the young couple take turns
testing the double bed
– Dee Evetts
**
new hammock-
my beer on the other side
of the porch
– Mark Brooks
fiftieth birthday
standing a little closer
to the toilet
– Mykel Board
**
the mirror
wiped clean
for a guest
– John Stevenson
**
long night
I adjust my breathing
to his
– Francine Porad
**
Starbuck’s
a man in cowboy boots
asks for latte
– Yu Chang
**
by phone
my sister says
we are in touch
– Hilary Tann
**
word for word
she remembers
our last argument
– John Sheirer
**
Trying to forget him
stabbing
the potatoes
– Alexis Rotella
**
running away,
Mommy
helps me pack
– Adele Kenny
**
midwest interstate
car ahead signals a turn
for fifty-nine miles
– John Sheirer
**
girls in bikinis
the man I’m with
trying not to look
– Brenda Gannam
**
on the twelfth floor
a life’s work holds open
the book-reviewer’s door
– Martin Burke
**
While the guests order,
the table cloth hides his hands-
counting his money
– Clement Hoyt
**
new dean
all blackboards
turn white
– Yu Chang
**
red light
I study the face
of my tailgater
– Hilary Tann
**
eye exam
i stop trying
so hard
– Hilary Tann
**
circuits lab
his mistakes
in the air
– Yu Chang
**
A selection of classic senryu from old time senryu anthologies in Japan:
when a man
comes asking for a loan
how honest he looks!
*
*
*
someone at the door:
the scolding session
stops – for awhile
*
*
*
when he finally
falls in love with his wife
the end is near
*
*
*
she’s been let go
yet in her mother’s words
“she’s left him”
*
*
*
“Don’t let this worry you”
he says, then tells you something
that has to worry you
*
*
*
his wife knows
how to scare a collector:
“He’s down with typhoid”
*
*
*
the weapon he uses
for threatening his mother:
a distant land
*
*
*
now that he has a child
he knows all the local dogs
by name
*
*
*
a son kicked out-
several houses down the street
a wife is divorced
*
*
*
the whole town
knows of it, except
the husband
*
*
*
“Bad for my health”-
when you begin to feel so
you’ve begun to age
*
*
*
the wife-
so much harder to handle
than the mother
*
*
*
having lash out
too much at his wife
he’s cooking the rice
*
*
*
since their baby was born
telling him what to do
has become her habit
*
*
*
suckling the baby
in bed, she shakes her head
at her husband
*
*
*
convenient
and inconvenient-
having a wife
*
*
*
no nagging on the day
her husband was a winner-
now there’s a woman!
*
*
*
“Just a father-in-law
whose days are numbered”
says the matchmaker
*
*
*
professional smile
of the mortician’s wife:
a look of grief
*
*
*
to put it briefly
courting is tantamount
to begging
*
*
*
“older daughter first”
the parents kept saying, until
the younger eloped
*
*
*
the love letter
from the man she doesn’t care for
she shows it to mother
*
*
*
first eye to eye
then hand to hand
and mouth to mouth
*
*
*
many excuses
he has used before – his wife
remembers them all
*
*
*
her husband’s
becoming a little too kind
weighs on her mind
*
*
*
united at last
in death, a pair
of happy faces