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.