Starlings Rush

by Michael Dylan Welch and Terry Ann Carter

Honourable mention in the 2013 Haiku Poets of Northern California rengay contest. First published in Mariposa #31, Autumn–Winter 2014, page 30. Written while waiting for and then riding on the ferry from Gabriola Island to Nanaimo, British Columbia, on 23 July 2012.

thunderclap—

starlings rush

from the coast madrone Michael

sun through clouds

the pine’s overhang Terry Ann

clear blue sky—

a boy loses his balance

on the driftwood spruce Michael

our paddles at rest

in the cedar-dappled cove—

gathering mist Terry Ann

a little rain

in the bonsai cypress Michael

storm warning—

swirling arbutus leaves

in the seaside café Terry Ann