Anitha Varma (India)

slight breeze
I watch the cat watching
the falling petal

Comment: a ku that gives shape to a fragile, evanescent beauty or shiori しをり (the falling petals in line 3) in an undefined yet familiar landscape. The ‘slight breeze’ (soyokaze 微風) that blows in the opening line seems to accompany an indirect observation of the event (the protagonist does not directly look at the petals, but fixes her gaze at the cat –neko 猫– that in turn looks at them), in a matryoshka-like context which instead reveals an attention to the present moment and a total participation in the events of the world. The repetition of the ‘w’ sound in ‘watch… watching’ reinforces the sense of circularity of this poetic experience that is shared with the reader.