Ashland Haiku

(haiku about Ashland, Oregon: my college town and more; dedicated to Dr. Michael Stone)

wet red leaves strewn on
every sidewalk; flaming
yet pacifying

Vietnamese joint
has sprung up on a corner;
!!welcome Asian friends!!

no hippies gather
in Lithia Park; most head south
like the geese and sun

my mom's roses are
bright: red and pink and yellow;
soon they'll hibernate

a blue-jay preens its
feathers in the light Fall rain
we are like cousins

Shop-keepers look at
me bizzarely; for example
a beard on a man?

There are logged green hills
and dark wooded ones: I see
from the rail-road tracks