As I often do on Fridays, I went in search of a photo to use as a haiku prompt and landed on one from a visit to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in August of 2021. This image reminded me of childhood when our mother tried to wrangle the five kids for a decent photo that was inevitably ruined by someone flashing bunny ears behind a sibling or making a face or turning away from the camera. Clearly, these cormorants couldn’t care less about me getting a good shot.
And so I wrote this haiku:
many cormorants
but majority headless
group photo challenge
Before posting it I took a closer look, zooming in on the birds nearest the center of the photo, and decided to crop the image to only show those four cormorants. And that’s when I discovered something I’d missed. Do you see it?
A skull!
Holy guacamole. This calls for a whole new haiku:
glossy birds sunbathe
pronghorn antelope keeps watch
sprinting days over
Please join in the fun and comment with your own haiku for this photo!
Tracy Abell 
The skull really blends into the rocks! Good eye! Here is my haiku for this week. I was trying to work in something about a sky burial, but couldn’t make it work this morning.
they gather
amongst the remnants
of their ancestors
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It truly was a shock to realize it’d been there all along and kinda makes me wonder whether the cormorants are aware of it.
Your haiku is beautiful, Mark. Thank you. (Confession: I’ve had your post open in a tab since yesterday because I can’t get a handle on the unfolding technique, but I’m going to have another go right now. 🙂
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Oooh, that’s a little creepy.
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It surprised me so much that I bet I would’ve let out a little scream if I’d been out on that outcropping and then seen it. HA
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Me too.
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