sudden gust of wind
the blue wild goose
twirls its wings

To be Nils Holgersson for once …

Reed-thatched white houses with dark blue shutters, rose bushes by blue front doors, white ferries on a grey-blue sea, white sands where we wade the shallows.

iceberg clouds
melting and drifting
to nothingness

Sandy pine woods, fields of sunflowers around old windmills, green meadows behind dykes, a sea of yellow rape, marram grass blowing in the wind.

My island …

a brief lull
the wings take back
their blue

1) Ruth Franke's haibun was translated from the German by David Cobb

2) It was first published in Lynx XXIV:2, June 2009

3) Nils Holgersson—the central figure of a novel by Selma Lagerlöf. A boy who takes a magical flight on the backs of wild geese.