Category: Issue 22.2

Our new background image for this issue is of a bioluminescent moon jellyfish.  A beautiful representative of the myriad of lifeforms that make their home within

late-summer tidepool . . .
rockweed sways
with the in-and-out of waves

summer dusk
hands scented
with tomato vine

 

overthinking
autumn equinox

summer’s end
a book returned
by a friend

summer blues
wisteria high in the branches
of a dying tree

 

 

Still faces it
     the sunflower
          withered by the sun

lone sunflower
in the zinnia patch…
the struggle to belong

expatriate
her adopted tongue’s
word for home

words in a jar—
another try
at forgiveness

letting the tea steep
the questions
we don’t ask

river stones
taking the path
of least resistance

sinking in
with each step forward
pickerel weed

fox tracks
a new path
to the creek

wood ducks
their calls
chase them upstream

deepening drought
. . . dinosaur tracks
rise out of the river

dragonfly wings
a map
of water

notes trickle
down a riverbed of sand …
the memory of water

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Originally appeared in the 5th edition of the Santoka

Flashpoint 572

 

In early May he assisted with logistics and media on one of the big forest fires burning in northern New Mexico. This was my son’s first battlefield

getting straight to the point cactus splinters

 

a slug hole
in the mushroom cap
first raindrops

drumming
the earth awake
first rain

 

storm clouds
the marching band
picks up speed

desert rainstorm
a flood of
wildflowers

wildflower meadow
the names you’re not here
to tell me

Twilight
the autumn hills
give up their colors

cycling with
the brakes half on…
autumn sunset

letting go of
what’s not mine
prairie wind

 

dead hollyhocks
nodding in the wind
all hallows’ eve

 

someone stirs
in the darkened house…
All Hallows’ Eve

a pair of odd socks
folded into each other –
month of remembrance

 

sixty years on
the bulge in a knuckle
grazed by a fastball

stars over the fairgrounds
I guess the number
of jellybeans

 

stars
at every turn
ferris wheel

 

forming
my opinion
daymoon

redlight…
greenlight…
sandpipers
on the beach

 

seismic          shift
a world         a war
within    and    without

 

 

 

 

 

(last one previously published in Femku Mag, Issue 33,

along the ramparts
of the ruined fort
wild parsnip

sunflowers
in the ruins
a child’s voice

 

seedpod rattle
missing the daughter
I never had

 

sunshower
answers to questions
I never asked

a blue vase
of white dahlias
floating clouds

mid-autumn
the carelessness
of leaves

thinner
day by day
autumn woods

family reunion
a buffet
of personalities

 

 

canyon switchback
each autumn
narrows the trail

high table
a parliament of crows
breaking bread

 

 

 

 

 

(originally published in Blithe Spirit 32.1, 2022)

 

November sky
another word
for blue

 

slipping the hook
to swim free
deep water day

bluegill at a mayfly hatch
ring after ring
reaches the shore

 

surface ripples
the songs my mother
knew by heart

 

late autumn
the old piano
covered with photographs

garbage night
I lift the lid
on my neighbor’s secrets

 

snow-capped mountain
she chose
a cloistered life

 

open black casket
the snap of her
kiss lock coin purse

 

winter trees
only the sound
of a crow

 

 

 

(Originally published in EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration, 2018)

garden party
an evening breeze combs
the willow

 

wildflower honey
the blackberry underside
of a cloud

 

she walks
out of the shadow
he casts…
a pea tendril
coils upward

anniversary dinner
taking stock
of restaurant peas

may i be so graceful the flight of a swallow

 

end of autumn-
i leave the flower shop
with a grasshopper

 

the road trip
not as planned –
thistle fluff

 

spiral galaxy
the whorl
of a thumbprint

guitar lessons
my youth
an improvisation

 

no mail today—
the postman returns the trash can
to the widow’s garage

only child —
born in the landscape
of let’s pretend

 

bruised peach
and her nana’s rabbit foot—
the child’s see-through backpack

 

popping up
behind the book
cat ears

 

my blue bathrobe
worn at the hook spot —
New Year’s Day

The front door
     wide open
        a shooting star

more war news
the slow bleed
of hibiscus tea

 

 

 

 

(Originally published in Mariposa #34, Spring 2016).

 

headstone inscription
the vocabulary
beyond her years

drowning out
the war news —
spring peepers

 

cultural evolution
the shifting patterns
of whale song

 

       Sunday morning by the sea
                 how reverently
               we eat ice cream

 

beach volleyball the moon in play

 

distant laughter . . .
lights
of an anchored ship

a hot date
the gentle creaking
of moored boats

 

 

 

(Originally published in Frogpond vol. 43:3 (fall) 2020).

true blue the bower bird’s allure

winter camping
the dark matter
that hums to us

 

breakup talk —
our breath mingling
in the winter air

new moon
a higher standard
of solitude

 

 

 

(Originally published in Frogpond 44:3 Autumn 2021).

 

launch called
between clouds
glimpses of the moon

 

all the time in the world aspen grove

 

Milky Way
the cigarette shorter
than the ash

 

hanging over us
an icicle
the length of March

spring burial
light around the edges
of the clouds

 

telescope images
the birth of stars
already gone