HAIKUS

I am a journliast and a poet. I run the Okinawa News Bureau for Stars and Stripes. In between deadlines the farflung staff (in the Pacific we have reporters in Okinawa, mainland Japan, South Korea and Guam) participate in Haiku challenges. Here's a few I wrote about trying to cover the military:

NEWS HAIKUS

Good news story ledes
are no longer than a breath
a Zen news haiku.

The questions are old
I await the brasshole’s call
And his blank reply.

Deadline is looming
The telephone remains mute
Desk says, “Killing me.”

“Why don’t you write good
News?” the Marine flack asks.
When you are, we will.

And then, there are other topics......

HOUSEKEEPING HAIKU

Many more dead ants
Cover my table, they rain
Down, a summer storm.

HORTICULTURE HAIKU

Pretty rock gardens
So popular in Japan
No damn grass to mow.