Shore Crabs, by Victor Ortiz

Ebb Tide, by Mimi Ortiz (USA) 2023

​Shore Crabs 

maybe
you
feel it too
the urge 
to go
to the edge
of a low tide
following
a shore crab
laden with eggs
scurrying
into the sea
where a sea star
in murmuring 
waves
clings to
a barnacled crab
drifting
just
beyond

Victor Ortiz

Victor Ortiz lives in Bellingham, WA, but travels to Borrego Springs, CA, during the winter, where his wife Mimi loves to paint plein air and he writes about the desert. He has written two chapbooks Into Breath and Into Borrego Valley and has coauthored four books with mezzotint artist Mikio Watanabe. His work has been anthologized and published in Modern Haiku, Haiku Canada Review, The Mainichi, and Right Hand Pointing. Ortiz has served on The Haiku Foundation’s Touchstone Distinguished Books Award panel and as the Washington State Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America.