"Just Kiss Me You Fool."

It's eighteen degrees--
Not as low as yesterday.
(A winter heat wave!) 

Don't want to go out;
It's toasty cozy in here.
Haiku duty calls!

The swing and ladder
Hang empty from the large tree
Woodpecker taps soft.

Bare plants in the snow
Now trace their former figures
In thin silhouettes.

Dead leaf in the snow,
A portrait in beige and white--
A soft winter's shroud.

Bower of dead leaves
Hang from a still living tree--
Life/Death together.

For fifteen paces
My monkey mind took over.
I forgot to see.

What gigantic bird
Built this high enormous nest
Only to leave it?

It is freezing cold--
Ghost sidles over to me:
"Just kiss me you fool."