American Haiku | Teen Ink

American Haiku

December 5, 2023
By Al_R SILVER, Los Altos, California
Al_R SILVER, Los Altos, California
9 articles 0 photos 0 comments

I told my teacher

When I moved to the US

I first learned Haikus.


He laughed and replied

“It’s an irony, you know?”

I told him, “yeah.” I


Thought of a half life,

Trying to grasp what it means:

“American life”


“American kid”,

“American poet”, and

“American” me.


What was “citizen”?

How do I become one who

Fit in the nation?


Haikus arise in

Japan, closer to China,

Before the US.


Yet it was always

American to me since

I was so much less.


Tell me, tell me, does

This citizenship have a

Requirement for


A nation to count

Who is and who isn’t?

Everything borrowed,


Everything blue and

Red and white but nothing is

New. 



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