Matthew Paul
Haibun
The Winter Gardens
Floodlit twilight in mid-August. Holiday-makers mostly, flip-flopping at holiday pace.
Among the flowerbeds, primary-coloured lights, enhanced now by the glow of lanterns. All shapes and sizes.
Children gasp, and follow the shadows into the undergrowth. Hiding, seeking, they dash in and out of reddened, bronzed and flamingo legs: parents and grandparents, swigging breezers and beers.
Then out of the bushes, an unexpected movement and squeals of terror –
over toes
at the lantern festival:
a scarpering rat
Page(s) 24
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