TEAM TWO

4-9. Weather

I am told it is 49 degrees Fahrenheit
by others' who strut in fleece and
animal feathers.
Everything I touch chills me
as rains flood and earth becomes
cold-hearted.
I wish to watch the clouds pass,
pass into a new time period
where the sun will be sympathetic-
responding to my recurrent shivering
with a tropical smile.

4-10. Double: haiku + senryu

Dust billows rise up
acacia trees spread out
leopard ignores us

wire noose on his neck
he will not last much longer
poachers got their way

5-1. Tanka.

Yelling did not show
authority would teach me
how to best be here,
and so I retreated to
silent woods where hermits live.

5-2. Poverty

It is not the lack
of things I want
that drives me
to make the struggle.

It is the fear that
all will run out
and we'll be left
nothing for our trouble.

6- Just before Dawn

just before dawn
i saw him for the very first time
after thirty years.

he was sleeping.
don't know why but
my heart ached
and i felt like
giving birth to us again.

i spent some minutes
contemplating what was still
mine and from that day on
i knew we would never die.

5-4. 35-40 syllables

My first grand-dog doesn't know what
he needs to do to get the cats to play with him.
Leaping back from outstretched claws
he learns a bit more that friendship cannot be forced.