THE HAIBUN GALLERY: 28th July — a Thursday Feature

Hosts: Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh

28th July 2022

This month we'll be showcasing haibun written by our four editors! This week we have Shobhana Kumar with us! Post Mortem

His postgraduate certificate is tucked away in an old steel trunk. Every other day, he answers calls on his mobile phone and sets out to work. Anything goes. For the last month or so, he has been a painter for a new high-rise. This one has fifteen storeys.

between orange and pink

a sky full

of bucket lists

Today, he caresses a stray strand of hair from his wife’s forehead as he leaves. He slips from the fourth floor, trying to save a fellow painter from falling.

They want to file a report saying he was an alcoholic. She spends the next five years proving he wasn’t.

broken a kite falls into the sewer

*Published in A Sky Full of Bucket Lists, Red River, 2021

More about Shobhana Kumar: Shobhana Kumar is a recipient of a Touchstone Distinguished Books Honorable Mention for 2021 for her volume A Sky Full of Bucket Lists (Red River Press, 2021). You can read the full comment here: https://thehaikufoundation.org/shobhana-kumar-touchstone-distinguished-books-award-honorable-mention-2021/

Shobhana Kumar gives an unusual touch to the haibun here. A refreshing style of weaving in and out through the prose and two poems - there is much to study here. The end - is left unfinished. I was wondering what had happened to the court case. Did the wife win? So much left unsaid. Sounds interesting? Why don't you try a haibun with the end left in suspense? Let it be subtle. Give us a good haibun, thought-provoking, something that tugs y.our heartstrings.

And we’ll do our bit – publish it in haikuKATHA – Issue 10, for you!

PLEASE NOTE:

1. Only two haibun per poet per prompt.

2. Share your best-polished pieces.

3. Please do not post something in a hurry or something you have just written. Let it simmer for a while.

4. When poets give suggestions and if you agree to them - post your final edited version on top of your original version.

5. Don't forget to give feedback on others' poems.

We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished haibun (within 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in the haikuKATHA monthly journal.