Global Haiku • Spring 2017
Dr. Randy Brooks

Love and Fiction

by
Samuel R. Miller

I don't like poetry. I read and write a fair amount of it but it was never something that I wanted to do with any sort of regularity. Haiku was my least favorite kind of poetry because I was under the impression that it was just a bunch of boring nature poems with a rigid meter. Nothing irritates me more than nature poetry because it all sounds the same.

That being said, I was pleased to find out that I did not have to stick to those rules and that I could in fact write about whatever I wanted to. I wrote about a number of things over the past five months, from food to love to fictional characters. I can't pin down what my haiku style is, because I really don't know yet. I'm just getting my feet wet so all I can say is that my haiku are wild and varied and may not always make sense to everyone. That's okay. Enjoy the ride anyways.

forgiveness
like a Venus flytrap
slowly opening

the Christmas tree
is still standing
no longer lit

lilac bushes
bare feet
Grandma's cooking

their love
a blanket fort
a movie marathon
a wedding proposal
cherry flavored
Ring Pop

August heat
cracked leather jacket
scars on top of scars

something stronger
to forget her touch
another shot of tequila

vanilla skin
her hands on mine
breakfast in bed

your French press coffee
always left grounds
in my cup

sleeping without you
I reach and find nothing
cold sheets

after last night
we try to remember
who kissed who

in the “zen room”
I share a futon
with a fat dog

I never got to wear
my father's
hand-me-downs

my hands on you
your hands on me
just awake enough to kiss

the gender is revealed
the baby is
a giant lizard

my mother tells me
which parts of town to avoid
I love you too

it isn't a holiday
unless someone cries
over potato salad