Kick the Can

by Sheila King

Care to kick a can down the street?
And so it rains and rains and rains.
Buckets are full and yet it rains,
Sweet lovely, refreshing rain.
The song birds hide
And now comes the wind,

"Hello there Wind.
Just passing through?
Well that's alright"
Trees bending
First this way
And then the other.

The wind teases me
But I'm onto his game and laugh.
"Goodbye wind"
The rain is just a drizzle now.
It has cried itself out.
Birds are out.

The air smells as sweet
As clothes on the line.
Breathe it in.
Care to kick a can down the street?

© 2016 by Sheila King

Rainstorm

A Haiku by Tom King

It comes in a rush.
God bathes the dusty city.
Umbrellas blossom.

EXPLANATION: In church today we were talking about how God wants to bless us and sometimes we hide from those blessings be cause we want to avoid the discomfort that might come with receiving them.  I had the city picture in my mind and I imagined a rainstorm over crowds of shoppers and pedestrians. When the rain came, the umbrellas began to pop open as people tried not to get wet. I like to raise my face to the sky and enjoy the first rush of the shower. I though about God washing the dust from the city streets and buildings with the rain. The picture of God bathing the city and people raising their protective "blossoms" just came next. I might have put this more obscurely, but the haiku form demands a very rigid economy of words. That's why haiku is such a wonderful teaching tool for poets. It makes you write more strongly and with fewer words.  The picture is of a friend of mine, Steve Marshall, a guy who knew something about rain and the need for a good wash now and again..........and for umbrellas.

(c) 2009