A Room of My Own: Two Heat Haiku

Lisbon heat
a trolley shivers
up and down the hill

Alfama heat
old flats congested
with migrants

Note: During my June trip to Portugal, the temperature there could reach as high as 40 °c. The Alfama  is the oldest district of Lisbon, spreading on the slope between the São Jorge Castle and the Tejo river. It remains one of the most photogenic neighborhoods in all of Europe.

Below is my another set of haiku about this June trip, Journeys, a haiku sequence for the country of my birth, Taiwan, which was first published in Cattails, 3, 2014

Sintra at dawn

a carriage horse

clip-clop, clip-clops ...

Lisbon heat

taxis rattle and screech

through cobbled lanes

Belem in twilight

her sailor song tinged

with love and regret

Ilha Formosa ...

sailors and I cry out

in a fleeting dream

Note: In 1544, a Portuguese ship sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it "Ilha Formosa," which means “Beautiful Island.”