Haibun

Having just awoken I went clumsily bumbling around a cluster of wires and cords converging chaotically in a splitter plugged into the wall by my bedside I was trying to snag a usb to micro conversion cord so I could download some footage from the previous night’s demonstrations to upload and disseminate on the internet but doing so I knocked down a Sisyphus statue I’d had for years and shattered it into pieces as I was cleaning it up hoped maybe there was a message somewhere in there from the universe.

hemmed in
this ghost-breeding state
snow shoes

leafy tunnel
the point where the road
disappears

For three years or so it was my favourite spot on earth.

I’d take the old stone steps down through the rhododendrons, then wait, gathering any last moments of beauty to bring to our conversation, before I rang the bell.

bronze on red –
an eastern spinebill among
red camellias

last leaves –
a fast one in a slow one’s
flutter path

What we talked about is now less important than how we talked. I remember our laughter. And how our eyes met over the antics of wrens, a sudden shaft of sunlight, or punctuating thunder.

it warms
my hands too –
kissing bird motif

I did not imagine it would all be over so thoroughly or so soon.

roosting butterflies  
disperse – inspiration for
a home of my own

Tom wants April to cut a tad bit off the sides after she wraps the red cape around him and fastens the straps behind his neck. "Ok." The hair clipper hums gladly like a lawnmower. Twenty minutes later her masterpiece appears in the mirror. His crown looks like the front lawn he mowed. Frowning at the light stubble, Tom sighs, “Cut too short. It’s to be outgrown with weeds.” His wife pats his head like a tambourine.

whispers
the kiss blooms into
a kiss-me-not