THE YEAR

Dog in the evening,

Barking in an empty car…

End of the year

AFTER ALL

Hanging on the wall,

Grandma's hot-water bottle...

After all those years

CHOCOLATE

Urging her boxer

To bark to the word ‘chocolate’ –

My aunt on the phone

SIMPLY THE GEM

It’s Simply Haiku…

The sad last hundred years of

This gem in Japan

I PONDER

Sitting in the chair,

I ponder the empty walk…

There comes a haiku

THE RULE

The kitchen window –

Tits reign in the apple tree,

Sparrows rule the ground

THE WALKWAY

Christmas walk in snow –

Our hands meet on her shoulder:

The way she dreamt it

DOUBTING

Young man on the bridge...

Doubting if he will get through

Another winter

END OF THE DAY

End of Christmas day –

Entering the bar she says:

Male striptease in snow

A BLANKET

Moonlit Christmas Eve –

Two apples spread their shadows

On a snow blanket

EVE

I come out of snow;

A mouse waits at the front door –

Dusk of Christmas Eve

LAST

Last day of Advent –

I wait for a book on you,

Mary Magdalene

THE HOUSE

December evening –

Suddenly I realize:

Day spent in the house

DAYS

Somebody tells me

That days are getting longer –

Foggy Saturday

ENERGY

A midwinter gift –

An energy-saving bulb

On the letter-box

WELL

Under the window,

The feather of a blue tit –

The cat looks well-fed

A SPARK

A foggy morning –

A spark comes flying out of

A hole in the stove

SEX PROBLEM

A man’s sex problem –

Asking Santa in the street:

‘What gender are you?’

FRENCH

In red shoes and coat,

In front of a French café –

A shivering dog

ON THE PHONE

‘Weighing five kilos’,

My aunt says on the phone!

Her one-year old cat.

REALLY ANGRY

She’s really angry,

She won’t leave the Christmas fair –

Baby in her pram

TOM

The white-necked tom cat

Sits under the bird feeder

In patches of snow

MEMORIES

Father’s memories

Of walking barefoot from school ...

An hour in snow

PATCHES

I open the door…

And see patches of moonlight –

Touching one, it’s snow

A MEETING

I’ve just bought a broom,

The man carries a stove pipe –

Meeting of old friends

FAIR

At a Christmas fair,

I pull up my trouser leg –

She thinks I’m a dream

CHILDREN

December racing –

Children on the river bank

And a little boat

MIRACLES

She works miracles…,

Making me give her five bucks –

Christmas of homeless

READING

Reading the signs from

The bare tree in the window –

Season of Advent

WATCHING

Under the bare tree

The cat stretches his body –

End of bird watching

BED-TIME

It is Christmas time –

A couple of apples rot

On the garden bed

SATURDAY

Saturday morning –

The man carries the ash-pan

Into the garden

FUNNY

Fog in the city –

A man and his funny dog

Leave the coffee-bar

SQUARE

In the round town square,

Under the huge Christmas tree,

Waiting in the cold

NOT A SAINT

Not Saint Nicholas…

A man comes out of darkness,

Zipping up his fly

THE BIRD

A greyish-white cat

Hides under the bird feeder

In the apple tree

Coal tit in the rain …

Testing the sunflower seeds

On the window sill

COME-DOWN

A foggy morning –

This rain will never manage

To come down as snow

A GHOST

A ghost-like white cat

Peeps from behind the corner –

I peep through the door