the thin shards of ice
becoming daggers and spears
little boys at play
When I was young and living in rural Arkansas, there was an expression the older women sometimes used. “Boys will be men,” they would say. The laugh that accompanied this was often rueful, because it was their way of acknowledging male behaviors that tended to become more complicated as boys got older. We can feel that same acknowledgment in this playful but sober haiku about boys making shards of thin ice into daggers and spears as part of their play. Innocent enough for the time being, although even here, already, there is the possibility of someone getting hurt.
—Clark Strand