Helen Robinson
Haibun: Common Bones
Slowly he comes to the bus stop. He is dressed sombrely, except for a dark tartan trilbv. His thin frame belies his age, for his brown face wears a light curly beard which is mostly grey. He peers at the number of an approaching bus, “Another 82!” he grumbles cheerfully. After a run of calm days today is breezier, putting a chill into what I experience as a grey though not unpleasant February day. “This country is so cold,” he says to me. “Mind you, I’ve been a seafarer. I’ve been all over the world - Africa, Japan, India, Canada. Now, Canada’s cold. Snow this high ... Japan too is cold.” I ask him how long he has been in England. He answers, “Since 1998.” “Not really long enough to get used to our cold,” I reply. Just then our bus arrives and we board it as individual passengers going in the same direction. We don’t talk again. I wonder if he has a family, somewhere in the Caribbean...
February chill
striking our common bones
in different ways
Page(s) 10
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