Reply Letter (a coalesku*)
Prune Juice, Issue 40
dear universe,
i wanna be small • a smile in the morning, creased and sought • the bum of a bumblebeebee in apple blossom • or a talk about • how every thing and every one deserves • respect • at the kitchen table • afterdinner • i wanna be • behind the stage • and rearrange the mise-en-scène • so loud to marvel at taking a breath after • and listen, think and feel • then walk • with every step boards may slightly • yield • or take refuge • from hunting down the next, the next, the next • in the shell of a walnut • a squirrel lost • last autumn • as if bedtime stories over time become • fertile • i wanna be the pause and echoing • then die • some day some small teal eggshell
in a garden
picked up
*Poet’s Note: Coalesku is a “mixed media” haibun which blurs the (visual) separation of prose and haiku/monoku/senryu. Though these elements can be read separately, they should blend together, with the haiku portion floating into the lyrical prose.
Ma
The Haibun Journal, Issue 5:2
A landscape painting in my therapist’s room: horizontal lines in energetic blue and white, with a touch of brown. Behind my back: a second one in shades of green. I can only catch a glimpse of it on my way to the armchair.
She says I once called the painting Irish. Did I? Oh. This morning I got the better of my inner critic, a good day, so I dare to ask her, “What did we talk about last time?” My thoughts, a swarm of beige. The irony. I come here to discuss that which affects all aspects of my life, and yet the memory fades as soon as I leave.
She adjusts her sitting position interlacing her fingers, tells me the story of our last conversation. And then I know. I know why I couldn’t remember.
one more feral call
the perigee moon palpates
frozen earth
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Frogpond 46.3, Autumn 2023
A straightened path runs down
the Saitobaru
entering a forest
leading to and through
another cloud
the day moon falls
through the roof
a clearing of highly-grown wild flowers and grasses that the sun engulfs in a shimmer
neck of a crow i question the i in light
where it worms
its way between the boles
to disappear in coal-black
clashing ocean waves
that meet a blackbird's song
within seyelence streaming rain sounds
pi & anne 