Global Haiku • Spring 2022
Dr. Randy Brooks

Forest of Dreams

by
Emma Antonelli

happy home
with closed curtains
don't look

chasing through
the forest of dreams
blindfolded

alcohol breath
cigarette smoke
he won't change

wilted wild flowers
over grow
the play house

crumpled love letters
shoved in
my father's desk

chrysanthemum covered swing
life and death
sit together

unraveled lunar moth
eager to catch up
to the moon beams

empty desk
I wish I'd known
what troubled you

fading scar
the hum of crickets
is clear now

MUD

Do you think you think you’re a good person? I know that I at least try. Even if it just holding open the door. Do other people see me that way? Do I even want other people to see me that way? I don’t want to be walked all over but not seen negatively either. Is there balance in between? The yin and yang of being a well-rounded person, being nice but not a door mat. Was I seen as a good person as a door mat? I don’t feel like I have it in me to be mean. Well not mean but standing up for myself. Would standing up for myself make me a bad person? Maybe I don’t mind being a bad person if it means no more footprints.

brushing off 
the footprints 
on her back 

scattered puzzle pieces
two wedged together 
we don’t match

bakery display case
his reflection smiles
that’s what I want

first real date
stuck at the top
of the ferris wheel

mouth closed tight
holding the wriggling eels
in my throat

family heirloom
holding values 
that I do not

dirty plushie pet
she refuses to wash
the memories out