Patience [Senryū]

Photograph of an Orb Weaver spider taken in Taroko Gorge, Taiwan.
Spider builds its web 
line by line, and then waits;
I watch for two minutes.

Alone in the Cold [Haiku]

solitary duck
huddles with itself,
against the cold.

Foot-tapping Seagull [Kyōka]

Photograph of a Seagull near the fish market in Helsinki, Finland.
a Seagull stands 
at a respectful distance
from a fish stall,
waiting for the fishmonger
to do the right thing.

PROMPT: Ambitious DIY

Daily writing prompt
Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.

Trying to get squirrels out of the attic. They did me like Macaulay Culkin / Kevin McCallister in Home Alone. Ultimately, had to call experts (pest control, not hitmen,) and they made short work of it.

Snow Squirrel [Haiku]

Photograph of a squirrel on snow on Mount Royal in Montreal, Quebec.
chubby squirrel
scampers across crusty snow --
crunchlessly!

Beetle [Lyric Poem]

Photograph of beetle in Botswana, near the Chobe River.
A Beetle that was built like a tank
Crawled over a blazing riverbank
Now as any sane one would think
It should head straight for the drink
To cool off its little ole toes.
But as astute readers will know,
It hasn't really got any toes,
So, it can walk hot sands real slow.

The Regal Eagle [Lyric Poem]

A photograph of an African Fish Eagle taken in Chobe National Park in Botswana.
No bird ever seemed quite so regal
As a quietly perching eagle.
But it's not so much like a king
When it dismounts, to take wing --
Cause that bird has to work for its living.

River Taco [Lyric Poem]

Photograph of Hippopotamus in the Chobe River, between Botswana and Namibia.
We kayak where lives Hippopotamus,
And hope it isn't submerged, a-bottom us.
With kayak a quite crunchy hard shell --
Us: savory filling that screams and yells, --
We'll be a three-bite river taco to hell.

Fly [Haiku]

Photograph of a fly on a leaf, taken in Mussoorie.
fly in Summer,
buzzes around a cow --
dodging whip-tail.

Baby Monkey Wisdom [Kyōka]

Photograph of a baby Macaque taken at Gudibande Fort in the Chikkaballapur District of Karnataka, India.
the fixed boulder
makes great shelter;
rolling boulders
make monkey paste:
how do baby monkeys know?