a ways past sunrise
ed markowski, USA

somewhere in the carolinas, it's may 23rd, 1947.
i know this 'cause that's what the calendar at
billy pickett's sundries said when i went to buy
a quart of shine this mornin'.

i'm the man who lives next door to her, and i'm
the drunk who shuffles past her house just
about every evenin'.

either ways, time and moonshine ain't dulled
my sense of observation none. she's soft an'
smokey like a gypsy princess, an' twice as
smart as a switch on the hindside.

as fate would have it though, asleep or awake,
drunk or sober, in this dream or that, i'm old
enough to be her daddy two times over, an'
there's nuthin' i can do . . . but dream.

magnolia blossoms
an evening crow
dips into the fragrance

Ed Markowski resides in Auburn Hill, Michigan.

His work has appeared in The Birmingham Poetry Review, Blind Man's Rainbow, Bear Creek Haiku, Bottle Rockets, Brevities, The Elysian Fields Baseball Quarterly, Fan Magazine, Heron's Nest, MayFly, Modern Haiku, Nerve Cowboy, The Parnassus Literary Journal, Raw Nervz Haiku, The River Rouge Examiner, Sho Magazine, Short Stuff, Slow Trains, and Snapshots.

His poetry was first published by City Magazine in 1978, and has been featured on Detroit Public Radio.

Copyright 2005: Simply Haiku