11.

One sneeze can kill you

Church bells ring seven futures

Blackbirds flex sunlight

 

 

100.

Blunt-rolling squirrels

A crow rocks an evergreen

The cupola smiles

 

 

23.

A dog on Front Street

Struggles to sniff out sickness

Stripped forsythias

 

 

30.

The airborne hoaxes

Lamp in the cut for their chance

New morgues for the chilled

 

 

38.

Tell me more, heartbreak

I can’t remember the date

Medicinal puffs

 

 

51.

Slow jam grips a chime

A deaf ghost knocks on my door

The true spiritual

 

 

|||

 

 

Willie Perdomo is the author of Smoking Lovely: The Remix, The Crazy Bunch, The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon, and Where a Nickel Costs of Dime. Winner of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Cy Twombly Award for Poetry, the New York City Book Award for Poetry, the International Latino Book Award, and the PEN Open Book Award, Perdomo is co-editor of the Breakbeat Poetry Series anthology, Latínext. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Poetry, The Best American Poetry 2019, and African Voices. He is currently a Lucas Arts Literary Fellow, a core faculty member at VONA/Voices of our Nation Writing Workshop, and teaches at Phillips Exeter Academy.

These haikus are from Pluck Gems from Graves: Haikus, a work in progress.

 

 

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