Haiku, Outside The Box

Here, she said,
and held out the box of syllables
because good girls like us
bring hostess gifts
when we visit.
She emptied the whole box
onto my sunny kitchen table.

haiku tumble out,
start counting the tomatoes
fresh from the garden

She smiles, stirs them with a finger,
says, Go on, live a little.
They scatter, to see
what they can make of themselves
leaving dusty little footprints
fragile as moth wings
as they stop counting steps.
Instead, with a little hop, and a
goodbye wave, they begin
tracking new lines all over
the checkered tablecloth