Sunbelt Winter Sketches
by Gary Hardaway
January Bait and Switch Haiku
The day deceives with
bright sun and blue sky-- warmth that
cold wind slaps away.
Arctic Cold Wave Haiku
North wind needles bared
skin at cheeks, ears and fingers.
Damned Texas wardrobe.
Sublimation, Fire
Sunlight and the small wind
swallow the frost
on rooftops and windshields
but winter's tongue still finds
the bare and thin-clad skin
and licks with chilling fire.
Winter Avenue Haiku
A powder of snow
slithers in the whetted wind
down the avenue.
Enjoyed all, but "Sublimation, Fire" was my favorite.*
You've captured our strange weather here this season, the windy dance twixt fire and ice. *
Like them all, but like Amanda Sublimation, Fire is my favorite. I like how you honed in on the fact that winter in the south is especially cold due to our bare and thin clad skin.*
Taken as a set, I understand winter in Texas as if my skin had lived it. *
but winter's tongue still finds
the bare and thin-clad skin
and licks with chilling fire. My favorite *
Now this is real haiku. Many give you the "sorta" variety. This is the real thing. *
Good set. Especially like the juxtapositions in Sublimation, Fire - Sunlight/frost ... rooftops/windshields & winter's tongue ... chilling fire.
*
Love the inspired title: January Bait and Switch Haiku & in the poem itself the kinetic image of "warmth that/
cold wind slaps away"