The Kite Maker

by Judy Halebsky



[excerpt]


A haiku always has a breaking word


a kite is a kind of dream


I’ll trade you two drawings for a lemon leaf


Cormac is getting married to someone else


the sound kaku

can mean both to write and to plough


different characters but the same sound

so one is in the other’s shadow


Traveling all my life

ploughing a small field

back and forth

—Bashō


plum rain means the rainy season


burnt evening means a spell that breaks at dawn


I’ll tow your car out of the ditch for a beer


the wind is too strong


the wind is not strong enough



From Sky = Empty, Kalamazoo, Michigan: New Issues Press / Western Michigan University, 2009, page 79.