The Escape Artist

 

Not wings of feather and wax exactly

but feet too close together

to successfully execute his plan,

he grabs hold of the bars

and raises himself to stare

his two witnesses in the eye,

with the smug look of a thief

who has just cracked the safe code

or the accused in the dock

just acquitted of his crime,

to a chorus of OMG

and a mother's hand

stretched out to stall

baby's fall back into the pen.

Copyright Cathy Leonard 2026

Jack@customerservice.com

 

I wonder who came up with the idea

to call the first responder@customer service Jack?

I mean it could have been Sophie

or Emmet or Deepak or Rahul

answering my query

but it's, or is it?

colloquial, relatable, friendly Jack,

(if I discard connotations

like The Ripper, or The Lad.)

And so I've been baring my online purchasing soul

with a customer service initiative.

If only I hadn't been so chatty, intimate almost,

declaring myself a technophobe 

and nearly apologising for it.

For it's just occurred to me

that given Jack's prompt efficiency,

almost instantaneous responses,

that he/she/it

may well be a bot.

And where's the box it can tick to verify that?

Copyright 2026 Cathy Leonard

Keeping Time

 

A bird is tapping on the chimney cowl

installed recently to prevent

said birdy and its pals from descent

into the burning flames of eternity.

Its beat strikes alternate time with the clock

ticking on the mantle piece

recently introduced to act as metronome

for  my daily floor exercises

also recently embarked upon

to stay my journey to the afterworld.

Tick Tock Tick the bird and clock

in duo seem to call,

my very own cuckoo clock,

but heralding every second

and not just the hours,

a reminder of the relentless passage

of time and the need for me to persist

with building bridges, tilting pelvis

and, if I can manage it,

performing a one legged squat.

Copyright 2026 Cathy Leonard

Haikus

 

I recently attended a workshop on prose poetry, flash fiction and Haiku with the renowned Irish poet John W Sexton. The Haiku part caught my attention and has set me looking for flash inspiration ever since. John's take on this Japanese form is that it has been misunderstood and we can forget about the 5/7/5 syllable rule, which is great as it allows more freedom. 9-17 syllables will suffice in one line, two or three.

Some Background

Haiku started out as a popular activity called “Tanka."  during the 9th to 12th centuries in Japan.

A Tanka was a progressive poem.

The first poet gave a 5-7-5 mora verse, 

the second a 7-7 mora verse 

and on it went.

(a mora is similar to a syllable but not the same- hence the misunderstanding I referred to above.)

The hokku was the name given to the first verse that set the mood for the rest.

It came into its own in the 19th century when hokkus were written and read for their own sake.

The three masters of “hokku” from the 17th century were Basho, Issa, and Buson. 

                                          *****

The theme of Haikus was traditionally Nature but Love crept in as a permissible subject.

A haiku is made up of a fragment and a phrase. Here are some I wrote after doing the workshop.

clothes horse in the garden (fragment)

pegging down the sun (phrase)

mountains on the horizon

upholding the clouds

treetops on fire

morning sun rising

her spirit

sunshine breaking through cloud

They are fun to write and also hone our descriptive writing skills. 

Enjoy