THE HAIBUN GALLERY: January 22, 2026. Shloka Shankar - Guest Editor
- Kala Ramesh
- Jan 22
- 1 min read
editors on haikuKATHA: Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh
Lorraine Haig has stepped down from being a mentor for this forum. Triveni Haikai India and The Haibun Gallery are grateful for her exceptional feedback and responses over the last few years.
Guest Editor: Shloka Shanker
Featured Poet: Kat Lehmann
A Thursday Feature January 22, 2026
A List of Foods for the End of the World
Kat Lehmann
Chocolate.
go bag
eighty percent
won’t fit
— Prune Juice, Issue 47
Commentary:
This haibun by Kat Lehmann could easily be a gembun had she not titled it. Instead, she chooses a rather ominous-sounding title and offers us a one-word prose poem, if you will. Our apocalyptic expectations are swiftly thwarted upon encountering the word “chocolate.” In the face of impending doom, there’s at least dessert, right?
Prompt:
Write a haibun that employs elements of science fiction to describe a post-apocalyptic world. What monsters will inhabit the planet as we know it?
***
Let's see how our members respond to this prompt!
Thank you for being with us through this month!
_kala
The Haibun Gallery continues as is.
We will be having editors and prompts, and your sharing …
Haibun 1 - 28/01/2026
Always New
The body appears to float and travel across pinpoints of light to what appears to be an umbrella of fine lace across a dark midnight sky.
It’s the second day of my silent retreat at Rishikesh.
mobile phone —
transferring data
to the latest model
Rupa Anand, New Delhi, India
feedback is welcome
#2
List of Potential Infiltrators in Gen-Z Movement
The Status Quoists.
dark matter
holding our universe
in its power
Tejendra Sherchan, Nepal
Feedback(s) welcome.
#1 Off Theme
Instinct of a Wild Animal
Despite their limited intelligence, wild animals stun us with their adaptive power. Nature has gifted them with their respective survival mechanisms. Einstein prescribed us a pill, "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
obedience
porcupettes quills to be soft
during birth
Tejendra Sherchan, Nepal
Feedback(s) welcome.
The Fall
The cave glistens with suspended water droplets. One lands on my forehead. I flinch and it rolls down my face, like an icy snail track.
The boy sitting cross-legged at the cave entrance hasn’t moved. It’s as if he’s in some sort of trance. He seems to be staring into the weeping eyes of the snarling, two-headed creature that is straining to get in. It rears up on its scraggy hind legs. But it is held back by an invisible force. The creature drops to the ground, whimpers and walks away.
The boy turns to me.
“Don’t worry, Mister. It’s friendly. There are more of them out there but it said they can’t touch us if we’re good people—if…
#2
New version after revisions proposed by Marion Clarke
Anxiety
After the sirens have burned out, the city learns a slower breath. Each evening, mutants gather by the river, the river whose name people still remember; their shadows bend the moon into new angles.
Zombies wander the boulevards, patiently. Like rust, they destroy they city. We trade bullets for stories, salt for a moment of peace.
Fear does not pass; it only learns our names and binds the black air around them.
full moon
something almost human
stitches the dark
original version
Anxiety
After the sirens burned out, the city learned a slower breath. Mutants gathered by the river, river whose name people still remember; their shadows bent the moon…