lew watts
With Charles Trumbull
Summertime...
rain-lashed trailer
gran says nothing
beats a flush
through rank ferns, with my slingshot,
stalking the northwoods chipmunk
another downed duck
in a smoke-filled arcade...
salad days
yearly cook-off:
once again Auntie’s pasties
are judged the best
salvaging mom's butts
for sandcastle cannons
favorite cousin —
we build a cardboard compound
for the horny toads
Lew Watts
Charles Trumbull
Frogpond, vol.42.2, 2019
Passin’ a Good Time
through cypress knees,
silently, a watersnake
and a canoe
muddy waters—a belch
from the redfish
dead in the water
a rusted Red Bull can
with a bullet hole
breaking the silence
a little lagniappe
for the swamp gas
poling down the bayou
pierogi in my dinnerpail
empty hip flask . . .
still no sign
of the fai do-do
Charles Trumbull
Lew Watts
Presence, issue 66, 2020
Sneaking a Peek
dandelions
by her swimming lake
ready to be blown … away
gardening … a sneak peek
at the neighbor’s patch
plumber’s truck
her curtains open
a crack
through the aperture
of a compound microscope
the prurience of germs
zooming in … next to the dentures
horny goat weed
coitus interruptus —
in our bedroom window
two grinning faces
Lew Watts
Charles Trumbull
Prune Juice, issue 29, November 2019
Dear TripAdvisor …
attic room rafters:
I whack my head a good one
in the middle ages
shared bathroom … the scales
on a black mamba’s tail
Stalinist high-rise —
the dezhurnaya winks at
our furtive trysts
seven-year itch
still desired
by bed bugs
sleepness night in the tropics:
two-inch tear in the netting
middle age …
blocked pipes knocking
in the room next door
Charles Trumbull
Lew Watts
Key:
1. White Hart Hotel (est. 15th century), St Albans, England
2. Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
3. Hotel Ukraina, Moscow, USSR
4. Travelodge, M4 Motorway, Cardiff, Wales
5. El Establo de Tomás, Tena, Ecuador
6. Hotel Rosorio, La Paz, Bolivia
Presence, issue 65, 2019
With Tanya McDonald
Left Behind
as if
she were still here
mourning doves
the unplanted garden
sprouts volunteer sunflowers
her handwriting
on the sugar canister
first hummingbirds
what she would have wanted
dividing up
the bearded irises
bequeathed
her African Grey, her voice
dandelion seeds
the weight
of her ashes
Lew Watts
Tanya McDonald
Haiku Society of America, Rengay Contest, 2020—first place.
Miles and Miles and . . .
braided stream
she lets me touch
her varicose veins
sharing a granola bar
and a salt-tinged kiss
packs back on,
with a flick of a tail
no chipmunk
a birdcall
we don’t recognize—
forgotten hiking poles
switchbacks . . .
waiting for each other
krumholtz pine
his vacation stubble
against my cupped palm
Lew Watts
Tanya McDonald
Mariposa, issue 43, 2020
(HPNC Rengay Contest, Honorable Mention)
Bloom
lakeside cabin
we leave the party
barefoot
above the silver road
rising moon
sheltered cove
one by one
the mother-of-pearl buttons
after our skinny-dip
the first stars emerge
shivering
waves lap the pebbled shore
. . . his tongue
drifting away
postcoital
water off a duck’s back
Tanya McDonald
Lew Watts
Presence, issue 67, 2020
Nice and Naughty
late night movie
on Christmas Eve
“is this seat taken?”
after Bad Santa
look who’s sleeping in my bed
naughty or nice?
sliding down
the chimney
flush-faced fairy
the scent of pine
on her panties
warming her embers
with his peppermint breath
come
she tells me
pa rum pum pum pum
Tanya McDonald
Lew Watts
Failed Haiku, issue 49, January 2020