Breeze sways
spattered poppies
long after the sniper
is gone —
dark falls on a corpse.
*
Ravaged meat
in a box:
Special Delivery.
Worms finish
what maggots started.
*
He watches her kneel
in the wet grass
at his grave,
crying for herself
in her long black veil+.
*
Three nights she dreams
of red sands and blue eyes.
On the fourth day, they come
in uniforms,
hats in their hands.
*
He’s a ghost father
to a stranger,
the infant he watches;
dying again
when the man dons a uniform.
“Martha” is written and performed by Greg Miller. The song is on Dutch Henry’s album, “1973.”
In honor of the fallen.
+taken from the song, “The Long Black Veil”
Frank J. Tassone is the host of Haikai Challenge. Frank says:
This week, write the haikai poem of your choice (haiku, senryu, haibun, tanka, haiga, renga, etc.) that alludes to Memorial Day.
Grace is today’s host of dVerse’ Open Link Night.
Tao Talk 
A poignant poem Li
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Sadje.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sad…
LikeLiked by 1 person
One day a year is not time enough to honor their lives or fill the empty spaces they left behind. Well said. (K)
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re right, one day a year is not enough.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I read this last night but I didn’t dare comment. It’s powerful…and I saw the Long Black Veil…may be why I did it subconsciously.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Max, very glad you posted the song.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I should probably thank you lol. I’ve wanted to post it forever.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Frank J. Tassone and commented:
#Haiku Happenings #2: Jade Li’s latest #tanka sequence for my current #haikai challenge!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dark, topical, poignant, this one assaults us, gut punch, uppercuts, jabs. I like the strength and the vision within it, and I like the creative way you expanded on traditional haiku, senryu, tanka parameters.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your comment is appreciated and humbling. To see someone sees means so much.
LikeLike
A lovely and moving collection. The last 2 specially touched me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Grace.
LikeLike
I like your description of him watching her.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Frank.
LikeLiked by 1 person
kaykuala
A stark reality for one in uniform. One has to accept the fact!
Hank
LikeLiked by 1 person
yes :(
LikeLike
A moving series for memorial day. A dark reality that stirs the heart with a deep loss.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Truedessa, yes.
LikeLike
Your poem takes me to Pete Seeger’s song Where Have All the Flowers Gone! Especially your last line… Full circle!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for reading Dwight and for your wonderful comment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are welcome!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A poignant tanka sequence, Lisa, with some surprisingly stark imagery. These lines made me sit up:
‘Ravaged meat
in a box:
Special Delivery.
Worms finish
what maggots started’.
The central incongruous ‘Special Delivery’ packs a punch.
How tragic that the ‘ghost father’ can’t stop his little stranger son from repeating history.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for your always appreciated comments, Kim.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Really fine quintet of haiku beading a melancholy Memorial Day remembrance. Well done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Brendan.
LikeLike
I love that song – ever since I heard it as a little girl and memorized the words.- Of course I sang along. I think even before I knew the words it epitomized irony and poignancy for me. You always make me think- it’s a good Memorial Day poem beats skin-to-skin partying among the virus carriers! I was just contemplating the way we shove the reality of death aside (rarely having to witness it in person) and so mistakenly consider it something other than life – one process, one whole.
Our dead are dying alone now – un-witnessed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Christine, thank you and glad you connected with the poems and the music. It is a terrible thing we do, as you say, shove death aside. Every other creature takes it as part of the whole, why not us. Dying alone, un-witnessed, is maybe the worst part of it all :(
LikeLike
What a lovely and poignant set of poems… wonderful
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Bjorn.
LikeLike