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chase a fickle muse
and the only thing you’ll catch
is inspiration.

mirage beckoning,
my inspiration leaves me
drifting aimlessly.

I’m for the voiceless,
the anti-establishment
and the dead-end streets.

*
When I first wrote the above haiku, it was called “advocate” and it was more or less a statement of aspiration. But before aspiration came inspiration. That inspiration arrived in the form of various people, some of whom I’ve met, others I’ve only heard or seen from afar.

Louis “Studs” Terkel was one of the latter. He was a gifted man who spent much of his life telling stories of the working class and other folks sometimes referred to as the “uncelebrated.” He celebrated those people, quite practically giving voice to the voiceless.

Studs Terkel passed on yesterday, and rather than try to write something new, I thought it best to re-use an old haiku written with him in mind.

image: valkyrieh116

could anything be
as real as the smile passing
between you and me?