Three Towns
Joanne Morcom

Etzikom, Alberta

When the school closed in the 1980s, the 40 or so townspeople turned it into two museums, one inside and the other outside. The museums keep the town on the map, but most people would rather see the school and playground full of children. But they're long gone, never to return, like the hopes and dreams of the town itself.

windmill museum ...
a yellow dog trots
beside tourists

Hoping, Alberta

A weathered sign on the highway points to a place called Hoping, but it's not there anymore. A few buildings, trees and shrubs are all that's left of a town that disappeared many years ago. The trees look dark and tall against the flat horizon, and a little lonely too.

prairie dusk ...
the old shed
leans into it

Manyberries, Alberta

Is it a ghost town or not? Officially it is, but it's still home to a handful of people who stubbornly refuse to move away. And the hotel bar does good business on Friday and Saturday nights, especially when there's a full moon.

hunter's moon ...
a truck backfires
on the dirt road

from Raw NerVZ Haiku, Volume IX:3, Fall 2004.