by Kelly

By my dog’s back foot,

a baby toad. She doesn’t

see. I let things be.

by Kelly

like I knew they would

the dogs pee on the snowman

who’s seen better days

by Kelly

drop the kid at school

take the dogs for a walk and

I find my old self

by Kelly

dog puke on my bed

Han Min in trouble at school —

it’s not even noon

by Kelly

They bluster and bark

at an empty tree. What’s there

I wonder — vampires?

Damn Twilight. Ever since I read those books, I can’t shake the feeling that vampires are lurking in my night trees, watching me as I take my dogs out before bed. If you only knew how many nights I’ve hurried my dogs inside while keeping an eye on the sky. It’s even crossed my mind that my dogs are probably safe from these monsters of the night. They’re so small, they wouldn’t provide much sustenance. But then that leaves me . . .

I’ve tried several times to write a haiku about this fear, but I’ve either never been pleased with the outcome or, in a fit of self consciousness, chickened out when it came time to push the publish button. Surely readers would think me silly.

But since we’ve decided to relax our approach to haiku this year, to let ourselves write about whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial, I decided it was time to finally share my vampire jitters.

by Kelly

the dogs sleep with us

special treat for them, not us

they snore, we sweat

by Kelly

the dogs nose their way

through tall brown grass hunting mice —

I look on amused

by Alison

head cold

becomes stomach bug –

my dog looks worried

by Kelly

goblins suspended

from a neighbor’s tree — my dogs

bark in protest

by Kelly

I’ve written in this space before about my mom’s habit of “clipping.” When she comes across an article she thinks I will find interesting, she “clips” it out of the newspaper or magazine and sends it to me.

Many months ago, she gave me a clipping from an article in the Wall Street Journal about President George W. Bush that said he liked haiku.

More recently, she gave me a haiku-related comic strip that she clipped from the paper:

Oh, how sad and true this haiku feels to me. But it’s only sad and true if this is, in fact, what my dogs do when I’m away. Maybe they don’t pine for me during my absence. Yet their exuberant greetings lead me to believe they do…

This isn’t the first time my mom has clipped a Buckles comic strip for me. After all, in my family, we’re devoted dog lovers and Buckles is all about the life of a spoiled dog.

And actually, my mom has clipped Buckles haiku for me before. It seems David Gilbert, the comic strip’s creator, has a hidden love of haiku.

I’ve tried to contact Mr. Gilbert in the past to find out if he has a collection of Buckles haiku, or if he would be up for telling me more about his haiku streak. Maybe with this blog posting, I’ll finally get a response!