Jo Pacsoo
Haibun in Progress
Haibun: Middle Street
[second version, haiku included]
The town is deserted in the early afternoon. With the turn of the tide a warm wind tempers the tropical heat. Into the Promenade Gardens.
Lush blooms
invite -
the droning bee
A place for solitude in spite of the many warnings. An Englishwoman was murdered here by a madman - she stops off for the day from a ship and is stabbed in these gardens while her doctor husband looks round the Public Hospital. He is called to an emergency and finds the dead body of his dear wife - everyone adds the endearment.
nectar drips
iguana
gulps air
Middle Street. Empty apart from one old man. As he comes near he starts to speak, words blurred by thick accent.
pink tongue
flickers among
yellow teeth
Accusations about slavery! Shiny black nose on worn grey face, bloodshot eyes under sagging lids, quivering tongue. He follows me for a few yards then turns away.
In the silence
soft breeze
scent of flowers
It is 1966. There are still those who remember accounts by parents or grandparents of their lives as slaves. The sins of my ancestors - slavery, opium wars, colonial exploitation... In England I have become a foreigner through marriage. Here my presence is oppression.
Home
hospital gates
clang shut
Page(s) 53
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