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