Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Everybody was haiku fighting...

On Dec. 1, 2004, my poet friend Sparrow wrote this poem for me in French and English:

Poème végétarien

Je ne mange pas des poulets
parce qu’ils sont trop intelligents.

Je préfère la nourriture stupide.

Vegetarian Poem

I do not eat chickens,
because they are too intelligent.

I prefer stupid food.
------

I sent him a haiku reply:

asparagus would
be offended but it can’t
recognize insults

Sparrow replied with a haiku of his own and the game was afoot. To read our haiku exchange, please click on “more.”

as a Mandarin
orange I deeply resent
your implication

bok choy quietly
observes the debate without
a hint of rancor

and the ceiling fan
still turns, above the carrot
section, lazily

succulent Chinese
apple too busy with its
flavor to notice

and the celery
reposes beside a small
cabbage neighborhood

red chard apathy
fuels the anger of collard
green community

when a rutabaga
rolls over, all the radishes
tremble together

at 6 in the morn
my fruit and veggie haiku skills
are not up to par

writing haikus on
vegetables is not
easy anytime

maybe we should write
the haikus literally on
the veggies and fruits

if we write on the
cabbages, we should use beet
juice in our pens, eh?

Beat Jews? In our pens?
Dear Sparrow has strayed from the
produce department

yes, I seem to have
found myself in the deter-
gent aisle (Number 6).  oops!

bargains and sales and
the smell of chemicals make
cash registers hum

if I have elev-
en items, I’ll put one back,
use the express lane

paper or plastic?
never fails to put me in
a terrible mood

and I want to look
in my pocket for exact
change—cashier glares at me

old woman shopping
cart blocks the narrow aisle
those on line tsk tsk

a 4-year-old boy
rides a shopping cart as if
it’s his pet porpoise

dolphins appear like
shadows in the cereal
section, then vanish

what are these new Ritz
chips?  They look dangerous.  But
are only $1.09

do you think Sparrow
would mind if I posted these
haikus on my site?

Sparrow says: “OK,
but I’d much rather be on
the ShopRite website.”

Well thank you Sparrow
I will let you know when it
will appear on-line

you are welcome; I
await notification
of my cyber-fame

the only problem
is how to end the haiku
thread so I can post

perhaps these poems will
suddenly come to an end
soon, all by themselves

maybe we can try
to reduce each haiku by
one syllable

(to be continued?)

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Posted by Mickey Z on 12/15 at 05:29 AM
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