FIVE HAIKU

In this exhaustion
I could sleep a thousand years--
It won’t be enough.

"Talk is cheap," they say,
Yet what a price we must pay
For man’s ignorance!

Oh señorita!
You look so lovely at night
When the moon is out.

Oh this raging sea!
In its vast expanse I find
My inner freedom.

If only this rose,
Opening in the sunlight,
Were your sweet caress!
 

                            November 16, 1999
                         --Alexander Shaumyan