Haibun ~ Esther Theiler

Man and Wheelbarrow

My feet, in suede boots, are gentle on the damp mosses. Shards of graveled quartz and granite sink into the wet clay path. Dog pads at my side, her nose reading each stalk of grass and creeping shrub.

The first knobbed kernels of pinecones sprout from the end of branches laced with droplets of firewater. All sounds are muffled in the soft air save for the piping of birds.

Turtledoves hunch on electric wires.

A man in coat and gumboots silently pushes a wheelbarrow out of the mist. He sets to work there, on the other side of the fence, a dim figure watched by the turtledoves. He is still there when I return from my walk.

dreaming of summer
he waters in
a new row of agapanthus

Esther Theiler lives where the skirts of Melbourne, Australia brush the surrounding countryside. Her haiku has been published in Simply Haiku, paper wasp, World Haiku Review, Modern Haiku and elsewhere. She also writes stories and other forms of poetry.

Copyright 2005: Simply Haiku