Some Western Haiku
By Jack Kerouac
Arms folded
to the moon,
Among the cows.
Birds singing
in the dark
- Rainy dawn.
Elephants
munching
on grass - loving
Head side by
side.
Missing a kick
at the icebox door
It closed anyway.
This July
evening,
a large frog
On my door sill.
Catfish fighting
for his life,
and winning,
Splashing us all.
Evening coming -
the office girl
Unloosing her
scarf.
The low yellow
moon above the
Quiet lamplit
house
Shall I say no?
- fly rubbing
its back legs
Unencouraging
sign
- the fish store
Is closed.
Nodding against
the wall, the flowers
Sneeze
Straining at the
padlock,
the garage doors
At noon
The taste
of rain
- Why kneel?
The moon,
the falling star
- Look elsewhere
The rain has
filled
the birdbath
Again, almost
And the quiet cat
sitting by the post
Perceives the
moon
Useless, useless,
the heavy rain
Driving into the
sea.
Juju beads on the
Zen manual:
My knees are
cold.
Those birds
sitting
out there on the fence -
They're all going
to die.
The bottoms of my
shoes
are wet
from walking in
the rain
In my medicine
cabinet,
the winter fly
has died of old
age.
November - how
nasal
the drunken
Conductor's call
The moon had
a cat's mustache
For a second
A big fat flake
of snow
Falling all alone
The summer chair
rocking by itself
In the blizzard
