Pearl Nelson

5

Pearl Nelson — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:46:00 +0000

My big dog has started catching crickets and bringing them in the house. She drops them on the kitchen floor and bats them around, pouncing on them if they jump. Each cricket lasts about three minutes, except for the one that made it to safety under the refrigerator.

I asked her, “Lu, did you know that the Chinese people think having a cricket in the house brings good luck?”

She seemed to ponder this for awhile, her right front paw holding down a shiny smallish cricket, and she said, “Do they specify as to whether it has to be a living cricket?”

Hmmm. I didn’t know. I thought about it as I got out the dustbuster or as Lu calls it, “the cricket coffin,” and sucked up three unrecognizable mashed flat cricket corpses. After another minute or so, I told Lu I wasn’t sure about the living/dead thing and I didn’t have a Chinese friend to call on to confirm the correct answer.

Her cinnamon-colored eyes looked at me with derision, the cricket dangling by one back leg pressed between her black lips. “Mmmkemeeeyah.”

“What?” I ask.

She drops the crippled cricket and says, “Haven’t you ever heard of Wikipedia?” and bats the cricket into a beautiful bank shot off the dog food bucket, through the laundry room door, straight down the basement stairs, and all the way to the bottom.

Well, either way, I think, it’s not good luck for the cricket.

3

Pearl Nelson — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:48:41 +0000

playing soccer, my big dog
kicks a cricket through
the kitchen chair legs

drought
has drained the pond–
herons have ankles?

pour me some more wine
I need to get this damn
mosquito drunk

2

Pearl Nelson — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 01:25:43 +0000

Summer arrived,
smothering
the pale pure fires
of spring.
All was surrendered
silently,
a yielding wilt.
Her fine pastels fell
to more garish reds
and orange.
Small birds left.
Beetles and spiders
came, ugly and hungry.
Nights became loud.
And even the moon
seems irritated.

1

Pearl Nelson — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 23:25:00 +0000

Crickets chide
quarreling crows into silence–
frogs turn up their radio

Yaaaayyyy!!

Pearl Nelson — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:37:45 +0000

I now can post from my phone. When a haiku happens, I can immediately post it instead of storing it in my leaky memory!

Storm

Pearl Nelson — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:42:16 +0000

eyes on the sky
driving through agitated trees
white knuckled

empty trash can
across the street
hiding in the ditch

little birds.
how did those skinny feet
stay the wild ride?

Dos

Pearl Nelson — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 01:38:35 +0000

fast moving clouds
the red rose held on
to most of her petals

my little dog searching
for wild strawberries
blue jays looking smug

two

Pearl Nelson — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:07:49 +0000

in the gardenia bush
a thrush’s song
made fragrant

dead spider
curly in the bathtub
no eulogy

Eggku

Pearl Nelson — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 22:26:13 +0000

twilight
settling on all
the unfound eggs

Resurrection Day

Pearl Nelson — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 14:38:13 +0000

the last of the dogwood blossoms
had left the tree, their fall broken
by soft spring grass and the breeze.
this morning, a long snake in the grass
coiled itself against my big dog’s barking.
I filled a pitcher with hot water
and threw it at the snake. I wondered
about resurrection as he moved through
the fallen blossoms, his wet body
accumulating unstained petals
as he left this place.