Three Demons: Sanki Haiku I
- Three Demons: Sanki Haiku I
Machinegunsbetween their brows —
blood flowers bloom.
Child of summerdawn —
tracinghorses in the mud.
Midnight
Skylarks
under storm, ferrying
bodies one
by one.
Rage
Volcanic ashcovered highlands:
jittery danceofthe jewel beetle. [End Page 25]
Sunflower
petals,falling on a
black mass ofants. [End Page 26]
Sanki Saitō (1900–1962) was a Japanese writer, most famous for his haiku, which he began writing in his thirties while practicing dentistry and for which he was imprisoned during the Second World War. His four major collections are Flags (1940), Night Peaches (1948), Today (1952), and Transformations (1962). Sanki is a nom de plume that means “Three Demons.”
Ryan C. K. Choi lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was born and raised. His work has appeared in Harper’s, BOMB, Yale Review, Asymptote, and elsewhere.
