POETRY: HEGE JAKOBSEN LEPRI

8 POEMS: SENRYU, HAIKU, KYOKA, TANKA


I
How did she do it
Red Riding Hood, luring wolves
into extinction?
Was it expert marketing
or her flawless marksmanship?
 
 
II
Is this blazing earth
just angry - or signing
our Eviction-notice?
 
 
III
The heavens last night
Poured out their discontent heart
Flooding our basements
 
 
IV
Showers in forecast
After us comes the deluge
Our prospectless toast
Too drunk to dream a future
Our off-key drinking song
 
 
V
While the ice cap thaws
I'll regret my lusting for
Gentler winter winds
 

VI
Lonely ice flake floats
on lukewarm Arctic waters
      - my eyes are melting
The edges of existence
now bend toward depression
 
 
VII
Mid-summer sultry
tiny bug bites won't disprove
our insect collapse
I offer my scratchy arms
In pursuit of atonement
 
 
VIII
The city's humming
I listen for sounds of hope
through morning traffic

Hege Jakobsen Lepri is a Norwegian-Canadian translator and writer. She returned to writing in 2011 and had her first story published in English in J Journal in 2013. She has since been published widely in Canada and the US. Her most recent work is featured or forthcoming in The New Quarterly, Carve Literary Magazine, Hobart, Agnes  and True,  Journal of Compressed Arts, Gone Lawn, Belletrist, Crack the Spine, Prism International and elsewhere. You find her on her on twitter @hegelincanada, Instagram: @hege.a.j.lepri and on her website: www.hegeajlepri.ca