Downy puffs

The first weekend in June, two years ago—My niece and her band of friends float from party to party. Once the ceremonies and celebrations are over, I discover in my Facebook news feed a picture that says it all: a long line of them captured in mid-leap, mortarboards flung into the stratosphere.

downy puffs

of cottonwood seed

in flight

a flock of new graduates

looking for somewhere to land

—GUSTS, No. 21, Spring/Summer 2015

I'm glad I was able to fly to Illinois to attend the festivities. Everywhere I looked, it seemed, there were indeed fluffy cottonwood seeds.

I pop in

I pop in

at my school reunion

online—

the familiar face

of the mean girl

—Atlas Poetica, 20, January 2015

Nestled

nestled 

in succulent leaves, 

a sign: 

Don’t water the plant 

It needs a dry spell 

office building, Magnolia, Texas, USA

— Atlas Poetica, 20, January 2015

No dry spells here. It seems the rains just don't want to cease; we're way above average monthly rainfall totals. Our wet-weather creek at the back has probably run over. And to think that for two or three years earlier in this decade we were in "exceptional drought" mode!

Announcement: June tanka contests

Poets, submit your fine English-language tanka to these two annual contests. The deadlines for each are June 30. Refer to the websites for submission details as well as contest results from previous years.

• Annual Tanka Contest 2015 at Mandy's Pages—Theme: to be announced June 1. Cash prizes. Fee: first tanka free, subsequent tanka $2 (US) each.

• 2015 Tanka Society of America Sanford Goldstein International Contest—No theme. Cash prizes. Fee: $1 (US) per tanka.

A trail of dots

a trail of dots

around each ankle

and wrist—

how easily bites

can turn into scars

—Mariposa, 32, Spring/Summer 2015

The slow reentry

Our cruise vacation in May 2014 from Boston to Quebec City (or rather, the return home from our vacation) spawned this tanka:

the slow reentry
after a week's vacation
travel clothes
still neatly folded
inside our suitcases 

—tinywords, March 25, 2015

At Bar Harbor, Maine

Curls of bark

curls of bark,
a crepe myrtle 
before spring …
the core of my being
smooth, unblemished

—GUSTS, No. 21, Spring/Summer 2015