CHOLLA NEEDLES Features my 36 haiku in its Issue #10, October 2017
36
Haiku: Ram Krishna Singh
1
a red globe
rises at dawn:
waving corn
2
awake
alone on the house top
a sparrow
3
the black idol
waits for worshippers to visit:
unbloomed hibiscus
4
knee-deep in the pond
awaits fresh catch to buy milk
for the new-born
5
squatting
in the middle of the field
a woman with child
6
resting in
the cleft of the rock
honey bees
7
sleeping snake
curled between the eggs—
layers of leaves
8
hitching up the skirt
she fills her pockets with
unripe mangoes
9
smell of fish
in his apple juice bottle—
costermonger
10
icy fish
laced with blood
spices smell
11
potholes
spots of sunshine
wobble
12
crowded streets
moving among the years
wretched faces
13
crack in the mine:
a traceless tipper driver
wailing father
14
living again
fountain on the hilltop—
divine light
15
a yellow spider
crouching in a corner
invisible webs
16
the sky
without a shadow
on the earth
17
the clouds gather
over the hillock—
the air too turns black
18
float over the hill
the autumn circles of smoke—
her long hair streaming
19
wet in sweat
from her under arms
perfume
20
transparent
in her red saree
she tiptoes
21
wiping his face
under the umbrella
an old man with books
22
between the streetlight
and windowpane howling
a wolfish shadow
23
prayer book
covering the glass—
his last drink
24
two bodies
sweating together—
sultry bed
25
in the bath
bare soul together—
afterglow
26
lying in her nightie
she wipes the stray raindrops
settled on her cheeks
27
watching
the darkness between the stars
enlightenment
28
on the river bank
his soul is lighted for peace—
lantern in the sky
29
unable to map
on the face where her pain ends
and mine begins
30
hidden between the sheets
my smothered senses—
salted honey
31
in silence
one with divine will
growing within
32
touching her tattoo
in the darkness of mirror
moon from the window
33
drifting
in the night’s silence
moon’s shadow
34
tangle together
flames of a double lamp
on the terrace
35
crowded waiting hall
fleshly warmth with smelly clothes:
midnight train still late
36
locked between
my bed and quilt
December chill
--Ram Krishna Singh
