Magnapoets Japanese Form

 

delirious
with fever
I shiver and shake
my long-dead mother’s hand
reaching for my forehead

first published in MET
photo taken and copyrighted by Cecil P Whitt

he sends me
pink pyjamas covered
with snowflakes
so I can have winter
anytime I like

first published in MET
photo taken and copyrighted by Guixia

homemade books—
You can be a writer
my dad once said
though hoping, I suspect,
I'd do something sensible

first pub'd in Simply Haiku, spring 2008.

waves crash
on shore, only to pull back
again—
as though I need to explain
why I love you

first published in MET
photo taken and copyrighted by zwitser

age eight
I watched them take my father
by ambulance
seventeen years later
here I am waiting, waiting

first published in MET
photo taken and copyrighted by  Annet van Raalten

fresh snow
untouched unmarred
how I wish
to start my life
over again

first published in MET
photo taken and copyrighted by jaynenjoe

a pretty girl's smile

in a crowded subway car

on Monday morning—

come on, old rest-of-the-day,

what have you got to offer?

monasteries
carved into mountains
hidden
from those
who hate God

           trees heavy
           with red and green
           fruit—
           in a dream, I tell my dead sister
           about the promotion

parkside
he wants to analyze our relationship
I’d rather discuss
the blues of the skies
the motion of the river

first published in MET
photo taken and copyrighted by mirlen

spring sunset

leaves me for the first time

in warm air

and loud crickets-

thinking of our first kiss

I tell him
it's his anniversary
he tells me
it's mine too---the comfort
in our seeming nonchalance


     from the top
     of the Space Needle
     he phones me. . .
     the connection
     still clear, after years

"I tell him" and "from the top" prev. pub'd in bottle rockets and Magnapoets (Print) respectively.