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haibun: death, life, life, life, life

death, life, life, life, life

crisp corpses of flies litter the floor of the conservatory, the low window-sills, the table-tennis table, little clichés of death – on their backs with their legs in the air – wings still fanned as if the end came so quickly there was no time or space to measure between flight and fall, the buoyancy of air 

and ground

clover and buttercups bunch across the lawn, new growth on the espaliered cherry trees reaches to a leaf’s length of their neighbours; one of us says, my hair grows so quickly 

in this heat

our daughter complains about her daughter – the scorn in her voice, her tossed head, the moods, the egocentric bounty of an eighteen year old who knows, of course, all there is to know, we know, 

we know

solanum dulcamara between the apple trees – bittersweet, fellenwort, snakeberry, violet bloom, bitter, blue or woody nightshade – easy to mistake for the deadly kind, atropa belladonna, hallucinator, the potion of witches, instrument of seduction, or destruction, the poisoned tips of arrows

red sunset
in the cat's mouth
the vole
fakes its death
Modern Haiku 46.1 Winter/Spring 2015

Comments

  1. Caroline10 March 2015 at 17:58

    I like this so much! Is the whole format called a haibun?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lynne Rees10 March 2015 at 18:05

      Thank you! Haibun is traditionally prose and haiku (one or more). I'm pushing the boundaries a little, I suppose, by playing with format on the page, separating certain phrases that act as links between the sections. But, one of the aims of haibun is to create links and shifts between prose and poetry so creating extra ones feels appropriate. It's a kind of collage form, I guess. And I played with it more in 'forgiving the rain' too.

      Really pleased you like it - it feels more experimental than others I've written. xx

      Delete
    2. Caroline10 March 2015 at 22:20

      It becomes dreamlike, mysterious, but something one is able to go with, without feeling puzzled, but just carried. I really like it!

      Delete
  2. Jackie Biggs11 March 2015 at 11:05

    I like it much too. I enjoy boundary pushing when it is gentle, maybe subtle, but the 'push' is neverless firm, as you have done.

    ReplyDelete

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