Some Raw Poems from RAW NerVZ HAIKU
by
John J. Dunphy
RAW Nervz HAIKU was a Canadian-based journal that published disturbing, cutting edge works. These are just a few of the poems I had published in it.
______
eighteenth birthday
he draws a cake with candles
on his cell wall
_____
ANOTHER FAG IN HELL
protesters wave signs
outside the funeral home
_____
battered women’s shelter
staff gives the new client
a baby shower
_____
street corner
child places a rose inside
the body’s chalk outline
_____
preacher’s benediction
at the anti-gay rights rally
“Let us prey….”
_____
dining out
homeless family scrounges through
a restaurant’s garbage cans
_____
golden anniversary
couple toast themselves
in the soup kitchen
_____
inner city
a gala Christmas wreath
chained and padlocked to a door
_____
Nam vet
stares at his Bronze Star
in the pawnshop window
_____
artificial intelligence
the politician delivers
a prepared speech
_____
inner city
the cookies left for Santa
nibbled by a rat
_____
inner city
teacher deletes another name
from her class roster
_____
divorce court
woman testifies
through her wired jaw
John J. Dunphy’s poetry works include Old Soldiers Fading Away, Zen Koanhead, Touching Each Tree, Stellar Possibilities and Dark Nebulae. His prose works include Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials: The Investigative Work of the U.S. Army 7708 War Crimes Group, 1945–1947, From Christmas to Twelfth Night in Southern Illinois, and Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois.