Some haikus and drawings for What Weekly
These are some haikus that Stephanie Barber wrote (one per day) and Lauren Bender described an illustration for.
looser than lincoln
more wishful than washington
john quincy adams
probably wooden teeth represented by eyes, knots, large hands and diminutive fruits
look at the camera
now tilt your head to the left
act like you’re crying
wish there was a way to draw an animated .gif—women thinking about fear
not airline pilots
not the wives of fishermen
not a small petal
wives of cranberry boggers—a mid-sized stem, pilots of sport aircraft
driftwood is speaking
giving clues and instructions
right there—deer arrow
contour; more knots but lighter this time—buoyed bait and bobbers but no boat
no, ghosts don’t exist
exist is fraught with worry
ghosts don’t worry
an empty room but with a feeling attached
that daisy leans in
like to listen to the grass
it is empathetic
a drawing of calvin from memory—not that calvin, the one who spits baby carrots
why is the slug nude
with its molluscian kin
shod so in spirals?
kingdom animalia—trilobite by the boy with the dog figurines all turned toward me
the bear is praying
to the stoplight on elm street
with leaves in his hair
man in bear costume or just bear, depending on the costume
musical flowers
like peonies and blue bells
smell sounds in ether
dad is master gardener—how can i draw synaesthesia
is that the sound of
heracles blowing bubbles
in the agora?
i need the answer first
a break is rest or
irreparable; distant
product of brittle
Kramer
gold damask curtains
a handful of glue sniffers
and five jack russells
gold damask curtains, a handful of glue sniffers, and five jack russells
your mouths shooting spit
and cartoon radio waves
slapping my ear’s ass
an ear with a butt
emily ruete
princess sayyide salme
and german hausfrau
wikipedia screen shot
damn cluck pit cost 6
and i got ulcerated
that cost 21
is this about chicken? one boneless, skinless breast
”moist is such a word”
”yes. drainage too, don’t you think?”
”oh yes, certainly”
two women with tin can phones held against their facebook statuses
they violent with want
and a hundred million stars
in skies black as sin
frogs reproducing in space
that war was belly
up by the time sharks arrived.
leftovers was all
tupperware with countries inside
pansies have a face
they really do, it’s the face
of a dumb infant
don’t make me do this
it is about fruit.
must a peach be metaphor
every single time?
two faces or a vase
their noctivagent
tendencies got the city
up in moonlit arms
sleepwalking on ambien, painting doors
their mission is to
end the exclusivity
of space savagery
grandmom as an astronaut, holding a coconut crème pie
that’n tree father
must’ve been inculcated
with whiska timing
thoreau swinging an ax
bastion of disease
hope of hope’s calamity
and tender eyelet
whatever it is, it must be the best—curtains, metal tub
potent optimist
in your relaxing torpor
wake your groggy ease
hypothyroidism
what bodes not too well
’bout the clarity of light
in your vertices?
someone who can’t get out of bed
all the bail bondsmen
in baltimore got their pant’s
pockets lined with tears
chris toll in shorts
i say give up now
give up, give up, give up now
while you’ve got the strength
a bunch of people struck with narcolepsy on the sidewalk, on their way to do things
why can’t my fingers
remember where your heart is?
those two rounds and point
hands doing this:
meret oppenheim
are ya pigeon toed or what?
all your boots make hearts
feet doing this:
all the houseplants list
to the left and their fav’rite
needy bumblebees
joy unencumbered, bee legs unencumbered by pollen, joyful with pollen
elizabethan
sailor and queen’s champion
decked in golden plume.
proud before the mast; on the hull it says, “it’s okay that ships are women”
three note leitmotif
secret to a flat tummy
scoldings from the street
incorrect kegel
country music stars
and their endless, inventive
use of nudity
nude dyson ball, nude garden claw, nude juicer, nude daughter of that guy, nude billy
saxophone solos
in the tree silhouettes of
songs like baker street
original northwood
a clowder of cats
a rookery of penguins
a drey of squirrel
polar bear 3-den system maternity fortress
we live in public
for all the wolf words dripping
pearls in india
you, holding furry strings in bright relief
