Cafe Haiku is doing a series on haiku, haibun, tanka or related styles on the subject of the Wuhan virus lockdown which is now daily life for most of the world as the virus spreads to alarming proportions. A big thank you to all those who contributed to this effort by sending us your beautiful words and images. Subscribe to this blog to read the rest of the series and be updated about future series like this one.

The eighth poet in this Lockdown Poetry series is Sonam Chhoki.

When all of now is this

night and day update
of the spreading virus
in the still bare lilac
its feathers wind-blown
a thrush sings its heart out

all hopes of the Pink Moon*
gone in the cold, cold rain
at dawn
the mist-shrouded slope dripping
duets of the pale-footed warblers

frost still rimes the grass