Haiku--By John McDonald--Scotland

leafless apple tree -
baubles hang
red and green
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in high branches:
a bad-loser's
football boots

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birthday -
the old man counts:
another card less

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beneath
a quilt of leaves
trout sleep

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head over heels
on the icy pavement –

decorated black and blue

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John McDonald is a retired stone-mason who came to haiku in the mid-nineties. He fell in love with the genre immediately. Being a writer in the Scots language this genre fitted so well with Scots: a language steeped in rural life and having a natural succinctness to it. John has his own blog in Scots, with English versions: http://zenspeug.blogspot.com  He enjoys being involved in translations, working with the very fine Irish poet Gabriel Rosenstock on various ventures, the most recent being translations into Irish and Scots of the great haiku poet Buson: Moon over Tagoto and has appeared in many anthologies.