July 31, 2016

Happy Haiga Day!

When I read the July 28 headline, "It's so hot in New York that manure is bursting into flames," my mind immediately went to the presidential candidate born in that state. Wow! Someone better start worrying about climate change! I thought. I amused myself greatly with imagined headlines from the supermarket tabloids: "Melania's desperate 911 call" "Gone! In a puff of smoke! Maid reports"

The statement above, if combined with today's haiku, would qualify as a haibun (prose + haiku). Instead I used the haiku for a haiga. The photo is from the NYPL Digital Collections, it was taken in 1936.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

In the early 70s I worked for a year and a half in Manhattan, I commuted from the Bronx by subway to Columbus Circle. On days in the summer, exiting the station, the air was redolent with the smell of onions being prepared for hotdog vendors. One of my favorite gustatory memories is of steamed hotdogs covered in tomato onion sauce. Normally steamed dogs are unappealing to me, but dowse one in the onion sauce and it's to die for (at least in my memory).


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