Haikus

 

Dutiful Mother awaits midnight moon
Cooks noodles
For boomerang kid

Chops sticks
Dancing in stir fry
Sand pipers in succulent estuary

Dog sniffs
Fermented bunny
Blue cheese?

Child loves bees
Sounds not sight
Spelling
Curators conserve
Archival fragments
Rats

—————————-

Midnight moon.

Mother cooks noodles

For boomerang kid

 

Chops sticks

Dancing in stir fry.

Sand pipers in succulent estuary

 

Dog sniffs

Fermented bunny

Blue cheese?

 

Child loves bees

If he spells

Write.

 

World War One Haikus

By: Wally du Temple

 

1914 / 1918

Trench cycles

Sixty days at front trenches

Thirty days at support trenches

One hundred Thirty days in reserve trenches

Sixty days of leave

 

Trenches in Europe

A Diachronic of war

In sunrise and sunset.

 

Over the top!

Cloud covered moon.

Gone too soon

 

Trench warfare

Battle of Marne

1914

 

Trench warfare

Blue moon

In fetid puddle

 

Trench warfare

Battle of Ypres

1914

 

Trench warfare

Incoming shells.

Exhume earth worms

 

Autumn leaves

Red from mortar.

Shells

 

Trench warfare

I’ll be home

By Christmas

 

Trench warfare

Loos-Artois Offensive

1915

 

Clouds muffle sunrise

Dapple trenches

In shadow

 

Trench warfare

Red poppy

In no mans’ land

 

Yellow air

Summer sulphur

Dust in hair

 

Bridges

Over trench mud.

Duck boards

 

Trench warfare

First Battle of the Somme

1916

 

Trench warfare

Lovely bride

Where are you?

 

Rat nibbles

Under Orion.

Dead toes!

 

Trench warfare

Stars above.

Barbed wire

 

Chapel wall

Trench warfare.

Crumbled all

 

Trench warfare

Snow in hair.

Sunrise

 

Trench warfare

Battle of Passchendaele

1917

 

Snipers and sentries

On the fire

Step

 

Trench warfare

Naked bodies.

Decomposing

 

Sunrise

Summer solstice.

Dew droplets

 

Trench warfare

Food rancid.

Want to go home.

 

Desolate landscape

Where a field of bright mustard

Once grew

 

Trench gun fire

Marks morning hate

Come if you dare!

 

Did a bell toll

At Christmas?

Hearts pound.

 

Trench smell

Of gangrene.

No Christmas pudding

 

Dandelion blooms.

Burst of the sun

In the dark of life

 

Trench legs and arms

Bleed and fester.

Bayonets

 

Endearing flower

Dandelion.

White milk in stem

 

Roar of biplane

Over trenches.

Fly boys.

 

Trench protection.

Mud parapets

And sand bags

 

All quite

On the western front.

Christmas carols

 

Trench ‘stand too’

At dawn

Guns readied!

 

Shattered frost

From barrel site.

Lee Enfield.

 

Trench rats

Eat brother’s body.

No morgue

 

Body lice

Despite delousing.

A scourge

 

Trench foot

Fungal infections.

Amputations.

 

Melted snow

From shell holes.

Dysentery!

 

‘Trench’ glazed eyes

Far off.

Shell shock

 

The Hundred Days

Offensive

1918

 

A short night

Broken by incoming fire

Under a crescent moon

 

Ordinance

Thunders the ground

Peonies quiver

 

White dew.

One drop on each

Cartridge

 

Flak in air.

Bats flitting

Here and there

 

Sat on trench latrine. Geese!

A calligraphy in air

Pleads for peace

 

A horse tethered

To cannon.

Snow on withers

 

Over shattered meadows

White mist coming.

Gas mask!

 

Hello spider

I don’t like

Your fox hole

 

Trenches, strangely silent

At noon, no orioles

Or larks singing

 

Hunched scarecrow

Nothing to do.

Birds gone

 

Was that a bat

Or a rat

In disguise?

 

Trench warfare

Springs and summers

Endless

 

In the war to end all wars

They perished in all seasons

The two hundred thousand.

About the author : Wally du Temple

Books written by Wally du Temple are sold by friesenpress.com where author information is available in English.