Spiralling Down

by Tanya McDonald, Russell McDonald, and Michael Dylan Welch

Winner of an honourable mention in the 2009 Haiku Poets of Northern California rengay contest. In commenting on this rengay, judge Billie Wilson wrote that “‘Spiralling Down’ has wonderful links/shifts and superb images.” First published in Mariposa #22, Spring/Summer 2010, page 31. Also published in Tidepools: Haiku On Gabriola (Gabriola, British Columbia: Pacific-Rim Publishers, 2011). See my introduction to the book. Written 26 July 2009 while driving from Gabriola Island to Duncan, British Columbia.

long weekend over

a maple key

spiraling down Tanya

a pale green acorn

sprouts from the nurse log Russell

freshly sliced watermelon

the retired mayor

spits the farthest Michael

siskins bicker

over the fallen thistle sock Tanya

abandoned barn

cottonwood fuzz drifts

through the loft window Russell

granddad’s puff

of the dandelion Michael