cold December morn
cardinal perches on bare branch—
looks back on autumn
©2025 and 2026 Kate Wolfe
Featured image is my own drawing using colored pencils.
haiku #79
Page 3 of 3
Free Fall
The waterfall looms ahead,
no way she can steer around.
It lays before her,
horizon to horizon wide.
Like a cow going to slaughter,
she knows she can’t escape what’s to come.
She’s poked and prodded from behind,
not allowed to turn back.
Scalding voices splash her stern,
eating away what’s good in her wake,
as it pushes her forward into the future.
Faster and faster, then…free fall.
The angry knots in her stomach untangle
as she leaves despair behind,
plunging into the unknown waters of tomorrow
where she never will be found.
©2023 and 2026 Kate Wolfe
Featured image via Pixabay.
haiku #105
through winter's white hush
half-frozen creek meanders
basking in sunrise
©2026 Kate Wolfe
Featured image is my own watercolor landscape. I painted it about a year ago, and it was my husband’s all-time favorite.
A Widow’s Sunset
sunset...
December 20th, 2025
three days into widowhood
still seems unreal
I'll go into the house
and he won't be there
just an empty chair
and twenty-five years of memories
some bad...more good
with a man who was hard to live with
but who loved me beyond measure
even when I didn't deserve it
how I wish he could have seen
this beautiful sunset
on his life
and who knows
maybe he was standing there
close beside me
no longer locked
in a dying body
chained to misery
at long last
soaring free
©2026 Kate Wolfe
Featured image my own photo taken at sunset three days following my husband’s death.
tanka #33
sun rises golden
pink, blue, and, periwinkle
lone pine tree looks down
on lesser neighbors’ cast-offs—
high-and-mighty green
©2026 Kate Wolfe
Featured image is my own photo taken of sunrise in my backyard.
hainka #5
north wind caterwauls
chilling late October morn
pampas grass shivers
fall settling in
on a heart that’s winding down
north wind caterwauls
turning blood to sluggish ice
death looms over horizon
©2026 Kate Wolfe
Featured image is my own manipulated photo.
