The Kite Maker

      by Judy Halebsky


A haiku always has a breaking word

a kite is a kind of dream

I’ll trade you two drawings for a lemon leaf

Cormac is getting married to someone else

the sound kaku
can mean both to write and to plough

different characters but the same sound
so one is in the other’s shadow

                Traveling all my life
                ploughing a small field
                back and forth

plum rain means the rainy season

burnt evening means a spell that breaks at dawn

I’ll tow your car out of the ditch for a beer

the wind is too strong

the wind is not strong enough

From Sky = Empty, Kalamazoo, Michigan: New Issues Press / Western Michigan University, 2009, page 79.