Global Haiku • Fall 2021
Dr. Randy Brooks

Remold the Landscape

by
Nathan Gallop

Fall of 2021 was filled with a lot of personal challenges. The entire semester was one terrible thing after the next, and each time, just as I began to pick myself up, I’d get knocked back down. It was the worst period of my life so far, but as I approach the end I can see the ways I’ve changed for the better. The following collection of haiku describes my experience, concluding on an open- ended note of hope for what is to come.

after the party
dance beneath raining stars
music in our heads

climbing higher
what goes up
must come down

talking him down
knowing next time
we might not be there

true colors
your hand on my leg
just don’t encourage

after the break
a palindrome—
friends are strangers

discarded trash
drifting
through an empty lot

revolving door
my turn
for fair weather

blunt force trauma
my identity
taken by storm

what else is there?
stuck on
I’m sorry

break every mirror
show me how
you see me

take my hand—
hold my palm
on your cheek

heavy storms
remold the landscape
and me

at the rescue
Mom’s voice tells me
“not the pitbull”

disappearing ink
reading before it dries
“I’m here for you”