Cornstalk Twisting

by Michael Dylan Welch and Lenard D. Moore

First prize winner in the 2000 Haiku Poets of Northern California rengay contest. Written on 8 July 1999 at the Haiku North America conference at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. First published in Frogpond 33:2, Spring/Summer, 2010, page 44. Download or view the “Six Rengay” trifold, where this rengay also appears, on the Trifold Downloads page on my Graceguts website.

Memorial Day—

rows of gravestone flags

waving out of rhythm Michael

dusty field

cornstalk leaves twisting Lenard

sailboat

on the billboard

peeled off by the wind Michael

collection day

a bag drifting

over the campus chapel Lenard

fan on high

the professor’s papers scatter Michael

the neighbor’s house

shingles strewn

where it used to be Lenard