I walk inside and strip. Clothes straight into the washing machine. Hot water. I go straight into the shower. Shampoo twice. There is a certain penetrating scent. The patina of history. Diseases settled into cracks. Stories sitting plain and ripe waiting to be spoken. Stories that no one will speak. The shape is too sharp. Pounded copper. Carved wood that has been overhandled, varnished with old sweat and blackened at the edges. Passed down as a caretaking but never owned. Maybe it takes the only child of an only child to clear the detritus and speak what remains into sunlight.

another visit
unable to hug
without wincing

Kat Lehmann

is a haiku poet, a potter, and a scientist based in Connecticut, USA. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and has been honored in The Haiku Foundation Touchstone Awards (individual poem), the Haiku Society of America Harold G. Henderson Haiku Award, and Japan’s Basho-an Award.

Kat is a Founding Co-Editor of Whiptail: Journal of the Single-Line Poem. She serves as a panelist in The Haiku Foundation Touchstone Distinguished Books Award (2021-present) and is a judge in the biennial Trailblazer Contest. Her third book, Stumbling Toward Happiness, shares her notes of self-exploration.

Kat’s work, including her experimental “sudo-ku” multi-haiku form, can be read at her website: https://katlehmann.weebly.com/

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Sensory Revelation Tank, haibun by Kat Lehmann which was nominated by MacQ for the Red Moon Anthologies, and selected for publication in Contemporary Haibun 17 (Red Moon Press, 2022).