Ray Rasmussen

And Why Not?

In his strawberry-breasted mating plumage, the yellow warbler flutters out from a willow bough, wings and body backlit, a golden halo. Perhaps he's chasing one of the newly hatched mayflies. Or maybe he's dancing to the song of the meandering stream. Or lulled into slumber by spring's heat, might he have fallen off the branch and awakened, startled, in mid air?

warbler's mating song
and why not
propose?

Redraft of a haibun that was previously published in Modern Haibun and Tanka Prose, #1, Summer 2009.