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Per Diem Archive: M. Clarke October 2018, Loaded

And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

           T S Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

We are like rabbits in front of a cocked weapon; our time here is loaded with potential disaster. What is most frightening? Nature unleashed, death and the unknown – or ourselves?
Perhaps we drown our fear of the future in a bottle, or smother it in material excess in order to distract? Or perhaps the dice have always been loaded and this game is unwinnable? 
Or is it? 
I sought haiku that relate to difficult times – times of personal strife or global problems, such as war. Is mankind really doomed or do we feel so intrinsically linked to this planet that it can somehow comfort us in our hour of need? And are the cracks required to let in the light?
So many loaded questions…

Marion Clarke

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Author: Jim Kacian
new moon another chance to make it right
Author: Jan Benson
spring snow-melt
forgetting where
the pain is buried
Author: Michael Rehling
pixel by pixel
light finds a way
night sky
Author: Pat Nelson
lavender hours
here at the furthest edge
of sorrow
Author: Barbara Kaufmann
on both sides of the barbed wire soft moonlight
Author: John McManus
seashell collection 
Gran whispers the name 
of the child she lost
Author: Alan Summers
dark news 
the comfort 
of crows
Author: An Mayou
fading bruises
birdsong
in the distance
Author: Ed Bremson
at the end
of the wrong road taken
a flower
Author: Dave Read
just when we thought
she’d live forever
starlight
Author: Chase Gagnon
cane in hand
he pauses to feel
the sunshine
Author: Robert Epstein
in pine shade
for a while I forget
this life will end
Author: Hansha Teki
for now a spark just that
Author: Dan Schwerin
the loss of our farm land keeping the moon
Author: Rachel Sutcliffe
deep woods happy to just be
Author: Lori A Minor
cat scratch
another lie
about my scars
Author: Marietta Jane McGregor
her rusted sewing machine newly threaded with wild violets
Author: Rebecca S Drouilhet
broken love...
the departing cries
of gulls
Author: Al Fogel
mayfly
so little
time
Author: Chen-ou Liu
midnight moon shedding light on the scars of my past
Author: Gabriel Bates
self-medication 
the mirror breaks 
eye contact
Author: Ben Moeller-Gaa
river moon 
the slow bend 
of the blues
Author: Don Baird
returning 
the sound of gunfire 
returning
Author: Marta Chocilowska
white chrysanthemum
who will remember me
when I’m gone
Author: Colin Stewart Jones
all is liquid 
at some point 
my excuses
Author: Brendan Slater
a spatter
of raindrops on the window
abnormal cells
Author: Kala Ramesh
incomplete beings
     you and me
complete the city
Author: Johannes S. H. Bjerg
deep in nothing
a tiny blue speck 
burning
Author: David J. Kelly
whiskey chaser
promising myself
an hour of happiness
Author: Helen Buckingham
the over
and over
of over
Author: Ernesto P. Santiago
flags at half mast
the silent cry
of the wind
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