Lew Watts

Blind Faith

summer with Auntie
my father packs a needle
for splinters

There was always something to do. Chop up logs, and stack the wood. Scrape the bird shit off the deck. Smile when the vicar came to call. And if I didn’t, if a speck of white stained the grain, if the logs were too long, if the wood stack rattled in the wind. . . well, Dad knew all about that, didn’t he. 

those long days. . .
the windowless shed
now in shade

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About the Author

Lew Watts is the haibun co-editor of Frogpond and the author of Tick-Tock (Snapshot Press, 2019), a haibun collection that received an Honorable Mention in the Haiku Society of America’s 2020 Merit Book Awards. His publications include the novel Marcel Malone and the poetry collection Lessons for Tangueros. He lives in Chicago.