Piegons at Breakfast
Pigeons at Breakfast (2025) is a collection of haiku written by Tyko Say and Jaromír Lelek throughout 2020-2022 where the two met throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to write.
The book features 100 haiku that present a day in the life of a pigeon with accompanying drawings by Roksan Mandel and Hunter Andrews.
The collection was published by The Word Addict on May 9th, 2025 at the launch event which featurd performances by Warm Braník and Service Elevator.
The Introduction:
We were two pigeons at breakfast
looking for our next fix, our next
gust of wind to blow us on but never
by. It was June, October, April, in
that exact order. And from our
chests we rubbed baguette, covered
in mustard, beating our bird hearts
with the hardhats and school kids
right there with them.
We were all there once, face down in
a puddle made just for us and
quickly if only briefly catching
the glimpse of the sky above us
while we thought about a warm
croissant.
What you’re holding is a day in our
pigeon lives. Written down around
about and at breakfast, lunch, and
dinner in an attempt to immortalize
lives in language in three lines.
It was August, July, November and
always Thursday. Braník in our
talons and a rollie under the wing.
We couldn’t fly but we could tell you
what the view was from there--had
already been there, had brunch
there, made love there, smoked that
and chanted “this city owes us its
balconies, its storm sewers, its
shoulders to shit on.”
We sat as any do observing the world
before you: on the square in chairs,
from a windowsill with no window,
under lamplight with still life,
and after the late night changed
his gown, went to bed, and left its
pigeon crumbs out for us who
plucked picked and digested them
into a secret and now public bird
shit.
Listen to the street-wise pigeons
pigeons speaking haikus
under their beaks.
Talked truth with Tyk
high up on the hills of wine
jazz
high up on the hills of wine
jazz
Wednesday of essence
spaghetti & Jaromir
sitting in chair
spaghetti & Jaromir
sitting in chair