outdoors – Selected haiku

20 November 2021 – II

bird hunted for break-
-fast next to coffee shop where
I’d order my own

awake before the
farmers’ market closed, I bought 
bread as a reward

squirrel eats pumpkin
decorations, a welcome
break from endless nuts

this Baja Blast Freeze
was thawed by summer heat and 
the warmth of friendship

longer than an oak 
leaf, slug full of abundant
summer bugs seeks more

dog sniffs late summer
flowers, prey, and rivals in 
cool air after storm

neighbor, nude and fur-
-ry and rain-wet, nuzzles my 
knee with their whole face

slug considered on-
trend cicada dinner when
Brood X emerged, died

on path near Lake Anne 
Plaza, doll counts leaves and hours 
without their person

admiring Robert
Simon: an ally sitting
tall, beyond the grave