Haiku
by Etheridge Knight

Read the automated transcript.

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.

“Haiku" by Etheridge Knight. Copyright © 1986, from THE ESSENTIAL ETHERIDGE KNIGHT. Used by permission of University of Pittsburgh Press.