This was Paul Brookes’ chosen form for last week. I’m not a big fan of haiku or Japanese poetry in general. The katauta is a half a poem, addressed by one half of a couple to the other. I’ve chosen to write both halves, two katauta making a sedoka, a poem that look at the same subject from a different angle, which I find more satisfying that the one side of the story.

Unwelcome

You look unhappy
I smile try to take your hand
you flinch in irritation.

Sorrow my burden
a bird’s broken wing—no smile
will mend the bone make it fly.

Selective vision

Window full of sun
the rose garden of my dreams
birdsong welcoming me home.

You smell the roses
hear only the birds’ sweet songs
not the drip of the roof leaks.

Shallow

What use dead gardens
full of snow where nothing grows
and spring so…