by RODNEY WILLIAMS

Flowers on graves

a tanka string in mourning for beloved women 

in shaded mulch
violets bloom yet again…
six decades before
under such a green arch
mum wielding her burnished spade

• with love for my late mother Hazel, Railway Parade, Meeniyan, VIC

gardening tutor…
she warns of a burr weed
calls it post-and-rail
looped stems with a sticky feel
once you’ve got it, hard to shake

• in memory of Wendy Savage, School Road, Trafalgar, VIC

flowers on graves
before my aunt’s burial
slowly flying west
a flock of black cockatoos
called zanda funerea

• in honour of Jean Williams, Hazelwood Cemetery, Latrobe Valley, VIC

this Fairy Tree
a magical meeting-place
in Fitzroy Gardens
planned with haiku friends since
Gran’s smile beaming here as kids

• in remembrance of Gladys Pearl McRae, East Melbourne, VIC