Blue Octavo Haiku
after Kafka
In fat armchairs sat
indolence and impatience,
plotting my downfall
*
A wicked cage flew
across the long horizon
searching for a bird.
*
I burned with love in
empty rooms, I sternly turned
knives within myself.
*
“Behold the bright gate,”
the keeper said. “I am now
going to shut it.”
*
Hardly was the road
swept clean when ah! there appeared
new piles of dry leaves.
*
But nothing could kill
a faith like a guillotine,
as heavy, as light.
*
Happiness? Finding
your indestructible core;
leaving it alone.
*
Into the heavens
flew a breathless legion of
impossible crows.
Copyright Credit: Rachel Wetzsteon, “Blue Octavo Haiku” from Sakura Park. Copyright © 2006 by Rachel Wetzsteon. Reprinted by permission of Persea Books.
Source: Sakura Park (Persea Books, 2006)