Elizabeth Howard, US

 

 

Haiku   power surge    squirrel fur dangles from the line     face painting the tot wants a puppy not a pumpkin     Tanka   garden peas for the church luncheon I pick up an old lady help her in the car her foot in the peas     after record drought black woolly worms forecast a harsh winter— I air the blankets go shopping for earmuffs     Free Verse   Cat   Mornings, she glides into the room, as graceful as Bastet, the Egyptian goddess, nubile woman with a cat face and siren eyes. Bastet bestowed blessings on the favored, wreaked vengeance on the evil. Just so the cat wears two faces: the purring feline who wraps cold legs with fur and the spitting tiger who wracks flesh with razor talons. Come night, cavern campfires smolder in her eyes, the moon a nimbus above her head, its kernel a sphinx’s riddle.