Weighing In

by Michael Dylan Welch and Sonja Arntzen

First prize winner in the 2015 Haiku Poets of Northern California rengay contest. First published in Mariposa #35, Autumn/Winter 2016, page 27. Written in the Poetry Yurt on Gabriola Island, British Columbia on 21 July 2013. +

summer trip—

no scale

on the island map Michael

scaling the hill

he skins his knee Sonja

scales of justice—

my uncle’s brass rubbing

framed in his office Michael

snake scales

transparent on my palm . . .

the discard Sonja

my son practicing

a minor scale Michael

in the scale model

of our new home

his infinite care Sonja