Out of Sync

by Sidney Bending, Margaret Rutley, and Michael Dylan Welch

Honourable mention in the Haiku Poets of Northern California’s 2022 rengay contest. First published in Mariposa #49, Autumn–Winter 2023, page 34. Originally written from July to September 2020, by email.

quiet on set

the director hollers

action Sidney

for the stuntman

extra padding Margaret

a jet fighter crosses

the clear blue sky . . .

old-time western Michael

barroom brawl

a break-away stool . . . doesn’t Sidney

aging starlet

lip-syncing

out of sync Margaret

at Grauman’s Chinese theatre

a mongrel lifts its leg Michael