Friday, March 12, 2021

Butterfly Dream: Black Man Haiku by Jack Galmitz

English Original

on the thruway
a black man is pulled over
a coffin is waiting

Applause Please, 2020

Jack Galmitz 

 
Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在高速公路上
一個黑人的車停到路邊
棺材正在等待

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在高速公路上
一个黑人的车停到路边
棺材正在等待


Bio Sketch 
 
Jack Galmitz was born in NYC in 1951. He received a Ph.D in English from the University of Buffalo.  He is an Associate of the Haiku Foundation and Contributing Editor at Roadrunner.  His most recent books are Views (Cyberwit.net, 2012),  Letters (Lulu Press, 2012), yards & lots (Middle Island Press, 2012), not-zero-sum (Impress 2015) and Takeout (Impress, 2015).  He lives in New York with his wife and stepson.

2 comments:

  1. Jack's sociopolitically conscious middle-of-the-story haiku effectively builds, line by line, to a thematically significant and visually and emotionally poignant ending that reveals the theme of "driving while black."

    And it might be interesting to do a comparative reading of the black woman haiku in the same collection by Jack Galmitz:

    A police phalanx
    moves backward
    a black woman

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  2. Thank you Chen-ou for giving of your time to my recent book, Applause Please. And thank you for finding something praiseworthy in it.

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