Poem of the Week: 7.20.23

"Heat wave haiku" by Ricky Novaes de Oliveira

Heat wave haiku

Forecast colors red
bougainvillea to burn, pink
palms hover over

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This poem has a haiku form, a combination of moment and emotion in 17 syllables.

Summer is a beautiful time in Los Angeles for natural beauty: flowers, fruit, cacti, trees, gardens, parks alive with heat. I also see people passed out on sweltering asphalt street corners unable to survive the heat any longer. This dichotomy is a symptom of every urban space I’ve ever been in, with our “palms”—hands, plants, hair, held—to guide us.

Fashionably, Ricky

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