Enter a Jet-Black Room


Madness has no schedule. It can be standing at the bus
stop, but the bus either comes or it doesn’t. Madness
may wear a trench coat – tan I think – with epaulets
and that belt that no one knows quite what do with.
But then again, it could be wearing a modest-length
skirt and practical pumps. You just can’t tell.
Madness is a bit of a jokester – more sly fox than an
actual sly fox. You can enter a jet-black room and be
slapping the wall looking for the switch and feel a
whoosh of warm breath in your ear, sending a shiver
down your spine and scaring the bejesus out of you.
That’s madness having some fun. You can wait for
madness to come. Even lay out the Welcome mat, but
like I’ve said, madness has no schedule.

icy wind
blinds closed to a tree limb’s
beckon


* Jeffrey Winke is a haiku/haibun poet and public relations counselor. Recent publications include That Smirking Face, a haiku-art broadside collaboration with Matt Cipov (Milwaukee: Distant Thunder Press, 2008) and PR Idea Book: 50 Proven Tools That Really Work (Denver: Outskirts Press, 2006). www.jeffwinke.com