Tag: Haiku

heavy doors slam shut

the decades evaporate

the steel bars do not

currents of whiskey

stir up maudlin sediment –

a barfly sobbing

Today’s haiku was inspired by a memory I have of playing in a baseball tournament down in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was seventeen – a pretty good shortstop, but certainly not a Major League prospect. There were several guys on other teams who had attracted scouts from Division I colleges, and there was a pitcher who had caught the attention of a few professional organizations – I think the Royals and the Reds.

They came equipped with radar guns, and they pointed them at the pitcher as he was warming up in the bullpen. Someone’s dad peeked over the shoulder of a scout and said the gun registered at 91 mph. I didn’t believe it until I stepped up to the plate and saw his fastball firsthand.

the pitcher winds up,

he’s a titan in pinstripes –

a blur sizzles by

a southerly breeze

singing through the willow tree

as summer drifts by

bellows stoke the forge,

hammer and anvil begin

to shape glowing steel

*Photo by Bureau of Land Management California – Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57804653

the Mojave dreams

of desert lilies blooming

beneath pastel skies