an open field

again this year the wind-sown poppies flower between stones The Haiku Calendar 2010 ( Snapshot Press , 2009)

so obvious things were falling apart when I had to walk up the street with a plateful of red pesto dressing to find out what had happened to my salad, though my haute couture dress — an off the shoulder taffeta Gina Lollobrigida little number in wine and black — was particularly appropriate for the restaurant, the army of Italian men appearing / disappearing through doors, but I couldn’t find the one in the silver suit who’d approved of my choice of sun-blush tomatoes, roasted aubergines, peppered salami, and had to speak to a woman with black eyebrows who was busy stacking up billowing leaves of oversized lettuce — radicchio, sweetheart, frisée — so I decided on a sandwich instead, buffalo mozzarella and black olives on ciabatta, and no, not toasted, or open, just give me the bloody sandwich will you, banging my fists on the glass counter, attracting the attention of a ginger-headed freckled Italian in pinstripes who smiled too much when he apologised, glanced down at my shoes. It was...

the sound of the sea speaking to my mother on her birthday Joint 2nd Prize With Words International Online Haiku Competition (2009)

The weeping willow, despite its name, its curtain of low-sweeping boughs, does not weep over what is lost,does not grieve. after her death watching the rain meeting the river Beneath the bark, a layer of living cells divides and multiplies, expanding sapwood and heartwood, stretching the bark until it cracks and sheds to fit the new girth. laughter lines— the scar around my breast faded now Growth: out into the world, down into the dark earth, and up into the light. Contemporary Haibun Volume 10 Red Moon Press 2009

1. 55 years of marriage my dad falls asleep before we cut the cake My mother has angina, osteoporosis and Raynaud’s Syndrome. On the telephone her voice sounds broken, but she doesn’t know why. I am moving 1,000 miles away from my parents at a time in their life when they could need me more than ever. My mother will die before my father. Even though he is almost deaf he will move around the house listening for her. Sometimes he will call her name, then wait. 2. Moving house is no.5 on a list of stressful life events. I don’t think this includes moving to another country where you don’t speak the language, and so many ordinary things you’ve taken for granted – making phone calls, getting house and car insurance, or keys cut, knowing that the words you need to get through the day are already waiting for you to call on them – become small mountains to conquer, or at least to begin ascending. top ten stress busters smile exercise get enough rest and sleep positive thi...

market stall buying the smell of tomatoes 'July' from The Haiku Calendar 2008 (Snapshot Press, 2007). www.snapshotpress.co.uk

It looks like rain. Your throat hurts. The prawns are off. The cheese is bland. The wine is past its best. I get my period. You burn your arm. The promised sunshine never comes. We lose the planning appeal. The Aberdeen Angus steaks are rancid. I shout. The TV loses its sound. In the middle of the night the alarm goes off. Your throat still hurts. It rains. The mango is rotten at the core. break in the rain birdsong frogpond - Volume 31:2, 2008