My response to dVerse Poets Pub Haibun Monday #12 – Beauty in decay
It’s a rainy Tuesday morning near the end of April. A chill wind tosses the willows, shaking young leaves that drip with icy rain. Spring buds and blooms are fearful. The daffodils in the vase have antiqued and their papery petals are crumbling into dust, leaving yellow streaks of redundant pollen on the dining table. The remaining few inches of murky water, tinged with green slime, emit a whiff of decay and the incandescent yellow of fresh heads that once trumpeted the arrival of spring has faded, sagging limply, smudged and sallow on drooping stalks.
trumpets once burnished
are now tattered and tarnished
wrinkled old ladies
© Kim M. Russell, 2016
writing in north norfolk 
April is the cruelest month could have been the headline for this wonderful haibun.. but what really sticks the most for me is the last line of the haiku… the whole haibun becomes a conceit for something else.
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🙂
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“shaking young leaves that drip with icy rain” — love this line. Excellent imagery here. And the haibun — the idea of tarnished trumpets and old ladies — brings us to a new place with the haibun. This is a wonderful write.
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Thank you Lillian.
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You’ve captured spring’s demise beautifully! I especially like the idea of daffodils antiqued…as “wrinkled old ladies”.
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Thank you Lynn 😊
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Oh my GOODNESS. Your haiku is fantastic. Daffodils as both trumpets and wrinkled old ladies? Wonderful.
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Thank you, De 😊
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As I sit reading your words, it’s as if you were at my side, Kim. That is exactly my view on this rainy April morning. Well done.
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What a lovely thing to say, Patti 😊
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Reading through this, I realize how poets are such splendid prose writers–you express this using such perfect sensory detail that I can smell that slimy water.
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Thank you, Victoria, for such a wonderful compliment!
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There’s a depth here that’s heartbreaking or heart melting, not sure which emotion is the stronger.
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Fading flowers compared to old ladies…I can see the similarities! Perfect description of an aging bouquet of flowers including that smelly, slimy water. I enjoyed your wonderful haibun very much, Kim.
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Thank you, Gayle 🙂
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