a haiku is like a samurai sword; it cuts.
5-7-5
1
Old Appalachia:
Home for the new, sick-hearted,
refuge in the stone
2
mountain speaks of wind;
easterly gusts never listen
below the summit
3
oaks seldom ask
the pines how to turn in fall
the pines never notice
4
a school of minnows
a cloud against the current,
swift, immovable
5
muddy shoals forgive
the swimmers who cross them
tip toing the bed
6
a single drip warms,
evaporates in the sun
then returns to sleep
7
naked we cross water
awake for the moon's last dance,
the waxing of time
8
who- if not we- wait
for the first frost of winter
to turn us to stone?
9
where will we find death
outstretched like a sunbather
after equinoxes?
10
mother prepares lunch
because mothers run the house
like a castle's queen
11
even cicadas
too grow tired of singing;
never the birds, tough
12
mother nature cuts
into the human skin
like a mind at work
13
fingers like needles
stitch the last hem on her dress;
tonight she'll be wed.
