Five Gargoyles (Ligo Haibun)

The flower beds are full of week-old ice that is slowly being devoured by slush.  It’s the type of ice that you find in suburban parking lots after a cycle of thawing and freezing – grimy on top and misleadingly brittle.  You can walk across the top of the ice for several feet only to find yourself knee-deep in mush the next minute.

You also find this kind of ice when winter has been harsh and inconstant.  It’s been a week of extremes:  deep snow, murderous ice, treacherous cold, miserable wind – and then – comparatively warm weather with sleet and rain.  It’s a confusing mixture that is sure to have consequences in the spring.  How many birds will be weakened and die?  Which bulbs will survive to bloom this spring?

Ankle-deep in slush /
five gargoyles – confused – ponder /
fickle winter’s course //

With wild weather like this, everywhere you go, you are bound to find cranky people coughing and sneezing.  I am one of them.  I have been bedridden for two days.  Now is the time for exercise – to get up, get moving, get the blood flowing. All I have to do is walk down the sidewalk – walk around the block.  That’s it.

But will I just walk around the block?  Of course not.  For the first time in days I am truly excited as I grab my camera and slosh through the muck in the front yard.  I am happy to kneel on the cold ground to capture flashes of winter’s beauty and cruelty.

I see a dead marigold that I meant to uproot – with its blackened flower heads all topped with hats of ice.

I see tracks where our vole has been busy scooting in and out of his burrow.

I see the indentations where icicles have been dripping into the snow – at their center they are clear and you can see straight to the dark soil.

Will any of these images be “professional”?  No.  Will I be sick again tomorrow?  Probably.  But it doesn’t matter.  For now, I am happy to run my fingers over nature’s brushstrokes.

Sharp little bird feet /
collapse old and brittle ice – /
I add my own tracks //

bird tracks via Pinterest

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This post is written for the weekly Līgo Haibun challenge.  Our task was to pick one of two Russian proverbs as the inspiration for our writing.  I selected the following:

The church is near but the road is all ice; the tavern is far but I’ll walk very carefully.

All five of my front-step guardians.

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