the Art of Haiku: Griffin, a zip renga by John Carley

The Art of Haiku

big bale silage
peppermint lime

toy town greens
and liquorice snips

a hundred

thousand heifers

dot the hillside

contemplating clouds
my neighbour

ktchink
counts the cash remaining

girl in fishnet top

reverses

Nissan Prairie

not so young
when to brace

the leaves are learning
and when to bend

gales of laughter

greet

the best profanities

pissed enough
the jokes that men tell

to be profound
in the loo

gaps in memory

recall

the gaps in teeth

Highway in the Sky
soft as drizzle

a necklace
sharp as night

drinking

all the colours

of Haslingden flag

Notes:

The Griffin is a public house in Haslingden, Lancashire, UK
'Highway in the Sky' is the local nickname for the A56/M65 spur. As befits the new brutalism of UK plc it is lit with sufficient candle power to be visible from Alpha Centurai with the naked antenna.
Haslingden flag is a durable carboniferous sandstone. Mixing pleasantly warm tones of brown it will quarry and dress as large flagstones which do not become slippy when wet. For this reason it paves some of Britain's more prestigious public places like Trafalgar Square. You can see the quarry from the pub, just beyond that sheep over there.