alive on subway senryu

168th Street Subway Station NYC

space feels close to hell
rumbling underground death-trap
did not plunge today

public platform
exacerbating delays
softening subway

speeding through tunnels
boundary between two spots
modern convenience

people feel alive
navigating city streets
defying traffic

exist on subway
surrounded by city folk
heading to their homes

routine daily nap
wake-up at destination
good use of subway

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Written for:

Poetics: New view for you

Prompt, by @cmschoenfeld, was to “have some fun and write subway poems.”

Also written for:

Prompt #127 – ALIVE

Also posted on:

Photo Credit: roniweiss – flicker page © All Rights Reserved

senryu of childhood

American Village - La Mazure 2010

dreaming of princes
in a most childish state
unrealistic

crayons stuffed in holes
garden filled with many toys
children live inside

birth of prophecy
childhood Armagedon
rank hysteria

those childhood friends
lost for several decades
link to each other

end of childhood
complicated histories
professional poetics

********************

Written for:

Prompt #110 – Childhood

Photo Credit: See pictures of heroic dogs in the military

Photo Credit: roniweiss – flicker page © All Rights Reserved

border kids

Some border kids are pretty aggressive and don’t like being photographed.

eight years from birth
parents don’t care
no place for vacation
tourists beware
iraq/turkey border
aggressive kids harass
they beg you for money
they’re a pain in the ass

no business
no pleasure
it’s no place
for leisure

why go to school
when bullies abound?
where are the parents?
no where to be found!
an audience watches
and they get in your way
if don’t give them money
they might make you stay

no business
no pleasure
it’s no place
for leisure

no opportunities
nor fortune or fame
wild sassy kids
that no one can time
each day the patrols
shoo them off, hopelessly
they don’t heed them at all
they go on woefully

no business
no pleasure
it’s no place
for leisure

Posted for:

border

Also posted on:

B is for Beginning interview with Berowne

Picture Credit:    Ilya Varlamov

For more about Border Kids, see @roniweiss‘s youtube Roni On Location documentary on his adventures hitchhiking into Iraq from Turkey