This is where you’ll find me. When I’m gone. In valleys lush and lovely, wading crystal streams below these ash-capped ridges. By day, I’ll live on water cupped from springs as clear and cold as air. At night I’ll wander under stars, filled with buttered bread, sopped in milk and supped in supper clubs. Alive. Untouched. By neither glacial ice, nor hands that once held mine. Before the great retreat, with nothing left behind. Yes, this is where you’ll never find me. When I’m gone.

onward and upward
beyond the northern edge
terminal moraine

Author’s Note:

The Driftless Area of southwestern Wisconsin, named through its lack of glacial drift, is famous for its trout-filled streams. Many anglers spend months exploring its steep valleys. Some are never seen again.

Lew Watts

is the author of Tick-Tock, a haibun collection that received an Honorable Mention in the Haiku Society of America’s 2020 Merit Book Awards, and Eira, a collection of haiku that received a 2023 Touchstone Award; both books are from Snapshot Press. Lew is also the co-author, with Roberta Beary and Rich Youmans, of Haibun: A Writer’s Guide (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2023). He is the haibun co-editor of Frogpond and holds an honorary doctorate from Bristol University. Born and raised in Wales, he now lives in Chicago with his wife, Roxanne Decyk. His other passions are fly fishing and gin martinis.