photo by Alex Lear

NINE NEW ORLEANS HAIKU

French Quarter Intimacies

through weathered wood dark

on shadowed streets ancient voices

whisper history

   * * *

New Orleans Rainbow

from buttered gold to

purpled black, the sundry shades

of my people shine

    * * *

Our Natures Rise

hard core nights are so

erotic, a whiff of the

breeze is narcotic

    * * * 

Sunrise On The River

shy dawn tenderly

gold tongue kisses the rippling

river’s flowing face

   * * * 

Quarter Moon Rise

soft moon shimmers out

of cloudy dress, stirred by night’s

suggestive caress

    * * *

All Nite Long

amid dancing &

drinking til dewed dawn, nights stretch

24 hours long

    * * *

The Spice Of Life

cayenne in our blood

we dance, eat, laugh, cry & love

with peppered passion

    * * * 

St. Louis Cemetery Crypt

bones float in raised stone,

white, altared graves, blood transformed,

become black souled thrones

    * * *

Makes You Go Oohhh!

sing of lusty foods

so savory they buck jump

cross your tongue’s dance floor

—kalamu ya salaam