slipping into
the boots with warm linings 
I crush a spider
 

deep snow
the singular raucousness 
of rooks
 

daughter in the clouds
any moment now I think  
she'll pull the rip cord
 

frosted brown leaves
hairs on the back of my neck
rigidify
 

the pond darkens
and all that ripples it  
a tadpole's tail
 

David Cobb is founder of the British Haiku Society, 1990; the author of a handful of individual collections and 4 anthologies, including British Museum, and the editor of The Genius of Haiku – readings from R H Blyth, 1994.