Haiku: The Great War 1914-18

active ash cloud ashes blaze
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The light infantry
They would be back by Christmas
No one said which year

copyright Francis Barker 2020

Haiku: Past Stability

kiosk-telephone-telephone-booth-color-red-3891920
Photo by franpics from Pexels

Comfort in the past
Stability seemed assured
The emphatic red

copyright Francis Barker 2020

Haiku: The Fruits of Man

flowers-church-church-window-flower-arrangement-3632088
Photo by franpics from Pexels

Nature is beauty
Ugliness ignores the truth
A thought to reflect

copyright Francis Barker 2020

Haibun Poem: Amnesia

low angle photo of four high rise curtain wall buildings under white clouds and blue sky
Photo by Philipp Birmes on Pexels.com

We found cameras in the rubble
of abandoned buildings
and started shooting.
We lived in ways which never matched 
those plush surroundings,
demolished before our eyes
to make way for the steel and glass –
an inferior civilisation tethered in debt.

Tell me what is real
Our amnesia is profound
Wake up to the dream

copyright Francis Barker 2020

Haibun Poem: Inheritance

grey concrete stair inside building
Photo by Josh Hild on Pexels.com

History is a narrative,
tomes written by the victors,
stories bequeathed to us children
who merely play
among the cast offs of giants.

We inheritors
Our shacks around palaces
Digging in the dirt

copyright Francis Barker 2020