Keith Polette

The Boy Speaks

Over the carnival, the wind came. It was like the sound a cape makes when snapped. I watched a magician saw a man in half and make a woman disappear into a mirror. I held my breath as he then pointed to the sky, turning his hands into birds. I had to count my fingers many times to make sure the magician did not call upon the wind to steal them. I called out for my grandfather, who had moved away to smoke his pipe. He gathered me up in his great arms and tossed me into the sky, where I became a kite and bobbed in the wind. Grandfather reeled me in, my breath gone like a blown candle. That night, as we rowed across the mile-wide river, I looked into the water and saw many stars. I reached in and plucked one out. I held it for a moment, a wriggling thing dripping light, before I flung it into the wind.

tilted trees
the way life leans into life
spring thaw

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About the Author

Keith Polette lives in El Paso, Texas. He is the author of a book of haiku, The New World, and a book of haibun, Pilgrimage, both published by Red Moon Press. Pilgrimage won the 2021 Merit Book Award for Best Haibun Book from the Haiku Society of America.