"Haiku" by Etheridge Knight

Haiku
by Etheridge Knight

1 
Eastern guard tower 
glints in sunset; convicts rest 
like lizards on rocks. 

2 
The piano man 
is stingy, at 3 A.M. 
his songs drop like plum. 

3 
Morning sun slants cell. 
Drunks stagger like cripple flies 
On jailhouse floor. 

4 
To write a blues song 
is to regiment riots 
and pluck gems from graves. 

5 
A bare pecan tree 
slips a pencil shadow down 
a moonlit snow slope. 

6 
The falling snow flakes 
Cannot blunt the hard aches nor 
Match the steel stillness. 

7 
Under moon shadows 
A tall boy flashes knife and 
Slices star bright ice. 

8 
In the August grass 
Struck by the last rays of sun 
The cracked teacup screams. 

9 
Making jazz swing in 
Seventeen syllables AIN’T 
No square poet’s job. 





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