Covid new year 
on each page of the calendar 
X marks the spot 


every whichaway 
the wind blows 
coronavirus 


St. Patrick’s parade 
not a pair of Irish eyes 
in sight 


early spring 
the equalization 
of all our shadows 


Memorial Day 
all the virtual flowers 
all the virtual graves 


blackberry winter 
the exponential rise 
in daily deaths 


Fourth of July 
Roman candles giving way 
to pepper-sprayed streets 


body bags 
a cicada’s hollow husk 
hangs by a thread 


school days 
on the jungle gym 
a murder of crows 


high-water mark 
even the sparrows observe 
a moment of silence 


Thanksgiving day 
a flock of wild turkeys 
begging for pardons 


year’s end...
the sputtering flame 
of a yuletide broadcast 

Margaret Dornaus

holds an MFA in the translation of poetry from the University of Arkansas. A semi-finalist in Naugatuck River Review’s 13th annual Narrative Poetry Contest, she had the privilege of editing and publishing a pandemic-themed anthology, Behind the Mask: Haiku in the Time of Covid-19, through her small literary press, Singing Moon, and received a Best of the Net nomination in 2020.

Her first book of poetry, Prayer for the Dead: Collected Haibun & Tanka Prose, received a 2017 Merit Book Award from the Haiku Society of America. Recent poems appear in The Ekphrastic Review, Lindenwood Review, MockingHeart Review, and Red Earth Review, as well as in the tribute series for Lawrence Ferlinghetti, I Am Still Waiting, published by Silver Birch Press.

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⚡ Le Rêve, ekphrastic haibun by Margaret Dornaus which was nominated by MacQ for the Red Moon Anthologies, and selected for publication in Contemporary Haibun 17 (Red Moon Press, 2022).