Haiku

Sequence

Through drizzling rain

and the woodpecker’s clatter

the nightingale’s song

Yesterday,

after the funeral,

reading “Ode to a Nightingale.”

On the broken-down fence

near grandfather’s farm

a raven squats

Raven and Crow

on the broken-down fence

on grandfather’s farm

a raven squats

austere raven

perched on grandfather’s fence

what have you seen

that you cannot speak?

the raven croaks no word

forever on that fence . . .

a sinister crow

settles beside him

poised on that fence

mysteriously silent and severe

raven and crow

the unsayable and the unknowable

both present and eternal

as the raven and crow

on grandfather’s fence

a pronouncement

inevitable as it is austere

we will never know

from this raven and that crow

Untitled haiku

1

So white, so bright

Carib moon over

the zinc rooftops

2

Silent cornfields

a solitary bird perches

on the scarecrow

3

This Aril morning

petals of sunflowers

dripping dew

4

October light

so cold by the fire

when we say goodnight

5

Water buffalo, water buffaloes

the farmer in the fields

also labors