Debbie Strange - 2

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Haiku Sequence

Sisters

first chemo
a yellow leaf caught
in her hair
 
 
day moon
(dis)appearing
sister's thin face
 
 
squash blossom
creases form between
her brows
 
 
fingerprints
on yellowed recipes
she is here, still
 
 
planting a Three Sisters garden we remember you 

Haiku Sequence

Seasons

​wisteria
we step in puddles
of confetti
 
 
the hum of bees
I know every word
by heart
 
 
the bleached husk
of a small crayfish
summer wanes
 
 
ice skating
on a bluebird day
our winged feet
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Tanka/Tanshi

in kettled-tidepool
purple sea stars cling
to ungranted wishes
we scatter the dust of ourselves
​into the drowning sea
​

that biting winter
my sister carried me
over hungry snowbanks
that swallowed our footsteps
before the bus opened its mouth
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dog nails on hardwood
waken me at four a.m.
a mouse in my shoe
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by the lamp

by the lamp
of a full Thunder Moon
I wrote this storm
with lightning bolts
dipped in wells of rain
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Drive By

Idlers and sidlers loiter behind the neighbourhood bar.
Trash tumbleweeds skitter down the lurking alley.
 
Plastic bags shroud the staggering fence.
Old news roots around in the gritty gutters.
 
Glinting shards of thirsty glass stab the oil-kissed 
     pavement.
Ominous shadows proposition pale circles of light.
 
Graffiti gargoyles scream silent profanities,
but not as loudly as the savage with brutal boots
 
stomping a writhing head into blood’s dark pool -
dealing death on the hostile street.
 
Distant sirens keening.
We drive by.

Blossoms

They leapt
into the choking void
to flee the voracious fires.
 
(the terror of
charred teeth
and innocent ash)
 
They flew
on unfledged wings
into a dusty blue embrace.
 
(singed hair
and flailing limbs
plummeting)
 
They died
with bleeding stems
at our helplessly horrified feet.
 
(broken blossoms
staining the longest day
            in September)
​
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              ♢

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Tanka/Tanshi

aurora
lithesome spirit walker
shimmering
above the taiga
​rainbow ribbons in her hair
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how the mountain's breath
caught and held us
in a shower of meteors
beneath earth's blue umbrella
we danced in puddles of light

                   Two Haiku Sequences

Birds

​we hover around our mother hummingbirds
 
 
sunrise sunflower heads dangling a charm of finches
 
 
waxwings again not enough berries for jam
 
 
winter bird am I the only one who knows your song 



Unfolding

CT scan
will I emerge
a butterfly
 
 
folding unfolding the origami of monarch butterflies 
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silver-zippered river
binding earth's frayed edges
to ocean
we paddle among sea wolves
singing the salted sky

Bread  ☊

the harvest beneath and between our lives
is always sacred

we fall
then rise up

the seed, the sprout and stalk
the swath, the stook and staff

the bowl is full
though chipped and crazed with age

still and ever
we are

kneading soft flesh
punching down sorrow
sprinkling salts of the earth
resting in a warm place
doubling joy

we fall
then rise up

the listening room

my heart flutters
trapped against my hand
as I turn the corner
I am listening for the rasp of breath
listening to the silence
that shrouds her room
 
her bed is made
(her bed is made and she must lie in it)
but not today
today she sits serene
blue eyes blue
as her blue gown
 
what does she see
with her mind’s blue eye
a small and secret smile
brushes her lips like a wing
lightly
fleetingly
 
for a moment
she is all there is
all that she has been
and all that she might ever be
in another time
in another place

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