american high school haiku

after a long & enervating day at work, after my walks to & from the office, where i was witness to most people outside on the streets walking their dogs, going for a stroll etc etc wearing masks & practicing social distancing i was thinking yeah, we are not so bad, we can do the right things, then on my way home i couldn't believe my eyes, restaurants open for dine-in service, the eateries were packed with people, the staff were masked, & the tables were spaced apart, but these spaces are tight, & you can't eat or drink wearing a mask, so social distancing in these establishments are for nought, & the whole district was full of revelers partying like it is 1999, i wonder what the fuck are these people are thinking, the virus is raging, the risks are grave, & tho i feel the need to hang with my friends & go out to dinner & a couple beers, too, right now is way way way too fucking soon, i despaired at our species

then i got home exhausted, saddened, & angry when i find a small package from my brother from another mother jonathan hayes arrived via that wonderful american institution the united states post office, i open it & find all these booklets published by richard robert hansen' poems-for-all series,  these are haiku inspired by jonathan hayes' vernacular haiku written by high school students from oceana high, an alternative high school in pacifica, as a project led by their teacher, & contributor to ah: american haiku, dakota milliwee, these are so beautiful, the book design by richard robert hansen, the project, & the haiku, that my loathing of our species abates & i wept in gratitude that our human being has moments of grace like these young poets' work, & the beauty of the books they are published in, so that i must note these poets' have great names, i am attracted to names, perhaps i am because my own name is pretty plain, tho lately i am starting to like my name because it is the label i have for my own hybrid person, & i see that these young persons' names are so very american, representative of this nation's cultural diversity, the rising minority majority soon to be dominant in the united states, & that these young poets who possess cool names, who are the future of this country, & their haiku, my anger immediately receded & was replaced by a sudden irrigation of the eyeballs