a red ixora bud
carried up the wall
by a parasol ant
Sunday morning i decide
not to take my umbrella

returning home
to an empty house
one ixora
left by the wind
on the step to greet me

what is
so magnificent about
a little brown bird
that two grown people should pause
in the midst of their conversation

sunflower
that awesome blossom
intimidating
all others in the garden
bright bold and golden

longer nights
nearing year's end
the crickets
incessantly chirping
fills me completely

Gillena Cox, born in 1950, lives in St. James, Trinidad, where she works part-time in copy cataloguing. She and her husband, Anthony, have two grown children: a daughter, Yanda, and a son, Khama. Gillena maintains a poetry website at http://mongst.8k.com .

Copyright 2005: Simply Haiku