Matthew Caretti
Mating for Life
They sit about ten feet apart, opposite facing, high on a power line just before dawn, just before their blues are sung into first light. I think of my mother and father on our first front porch swing, one at either end not minding the other—a cigarette and his own thoughts or her bookish intrigues, iced tea melting the day in her other hand. They never divorced but should have had the foresight to know that love doesn’t always last, that love sometimes looks like two kingfishers waiting for the sun.
ukulele notes
the already gone
of the wind
About the Author
Matthew Caretti’s books include Harvesting Stones (2017, Snapshot Press eChapbook Award winner, haibun) and three books with Red Moon Press: Africa, Buddha (2022, haibun), Ukulele Drift (2023, haiku), and Slow Boat to Samoa (2025, haibun). His haibun “Deep Water Port” earned a 2023 Touchstone Award for Individual Haibun. He lives and teaches high school English in Pago Pago, American Samoa
Such a beautiful and thoughtful haibun. I love before their blues are sung into first light.
I often wonder what brings people together in the first place and why the power of attraction cannot be met with the equal power of separation when the time becomes obvious.
Fantastic.
Hi Matthew,
Just stunning! I agree with Joanna, that same phrrase just stood out, so original. This haibun speaks so well of the title, and my word, feeling is comfortable, it is nuanced in that way , and can form a whole picture in one’s mind of the scene.