Chess and Lark Song

My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille  – a game of chess

This week we are writing a haibun, prose and poetry together, in which we have to use a haiku written by Chèvrefeuille, which he wrote several weeks ago in response to a photo challenge set by MLMM: a photo of an outdoor chess game. We also have to apply the following rules:

1. We have to place the haibun in spring;
2. The given haiku has to be used (as an inspiration or as the concluding haiku of the haibun);
3. A maximum of 250 words (including the haiku).

A spring breeze dances in the air, buffeting distinctive sounds and smells. In the park, old men bend over chessboards, staring at black and white figures, their minds whirring like clockwork, reminded by the grey shadows of overhanging branches that not everything is black and white. The trees are full of new leaves and birdsong. And then the musical waterfall of a skylark’s song tumbles from above.

a game of chess
while a skylark sings its song –
I lost the game

© Chèvrefeuille