dry creekbed
the gleam of a bullet shell
the only sound
Earthshine, 2017
Chuck Brickley
Commentary: L1 sets the scene and mood while the use of synesthesia in Ls 2&3 reveals a history of violence, where synecdoche is employed to show its "loud and bright" voice against Mother Earth as symbolized by L1.
What's left unsaid, such as the cause(s) of this "dry" creekbed, why is there a bullet left at the bottom of a highly unlikely place, a creek..., is far more potent than what's stated in this "nature/creek" haiku.
This haiku reminds me of the following remark:
In a war situation or where violence and injustice are prevalent, "poetry is called upon to be something more than a thing of beauty."
-- Seamus Heaney, Ireland's most renowned poet since Yeats, playwright and translator who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature,
And the following haiku could be read as its prequel:
snowmelt
the border mountain drips
bullet by bullet
Frogpond, 47:2, Spring/Summer 2024
Srinivasa Rao Sambangi
