Haiku Bird Has Flown
Mary-Marcia Casoly
for Adelle Joan Foley (1940−2016)
rendering a space
no more than three lines empty
large expanding bright
such a solo performance
has never been so
so enormous, gone.
Her presence always being
just right, skillfully,
steeping herself, pouring
tea into our cups.
What a good friendship
when her eyes met yours offering
a quick nod, smart smile
she understood your problems.
And then the charm of
her voice, rising in duet
meeting the demand
then, after words performance,
subduing her silks
for tall tales of literature
Jack-in-the-bean talk
Who was the charm of her life?
What was the charm of her life?
Steady in the back-
ground counting on change, counting
syllables count-count
The egrets are back,
Oakland sightings, reporting
her marvels, we'll miss
her, those talks of tea, beignet.
Haiku bird flown, gone humming-
bird beyond every
Mary-Marcia Casoly, a native San Franciscan and author of Run to Tenderness, is editor of Fresh Hot Bread, a zine for Waverley Writers in Palo Alto, California. Her chapbook Lost Pages of Bird Lore is part of the Small Change Series of Word Temple Press. Her work has been included in anthologies and various literary magazines and online. A new book is forthcoming from Poetry Hotel Press.