Bird Haiku
Joshua St. Claire

in the skeleton tree
greyness cocks his head
northern cardinal

Apothecary rose
a hooded warbler takes shelter
in his song

dog rose
a thrush calls
from a ruined castle

a scarlet tanager
with a bloody wing
columbine

Susquehanna Water Gap
a belted kingfisher burrows
into deep time

world’s end
a black vulture circling
in an indigo sky

the channels around the shells low tide leaves lines of sanderlings

Generalissimo!
a red-winged blackbird watches
from the cattails

a grackle
in his glory
flotsam

a laughing gull’s wings
shape the wind
green dunes

sound of dawn
Carolina wrens insist
over the waves

the weight of a pelican palm frond