Early Summer Haiku
10 poems from early summer, 2022
Foul summer, all along my back muscles knot and pull. I sit in stillness.
Another summer morning—sitting with back pain, listening to rain.
Hovering fireflies— we find the missing chicken perched on the tractor.
Dishes and laundry surge like weeds—stiff as a tree trunk, I convalesce.
This summer I attended a rainy but lovely Rolling Sculptures car show in downtown Ann Arbor with my family. The poems below were inspired by the experience.
--- Raindrops on the roof of the old car vibrating with the engine’s roar.
Closed storefront, main street— watching well-dressed diners rush under umbrellas.
At the car show, old folks float around propped shined hoods, recalling fondly.
Realizing my own confusion—out the window a young tree sparkles.
My family runs out to see the deer—chairbound I watch them going.
Midwestern summers can be very, very humid.
--- Deep summer— on every surface water rings