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