One Haibun Poem by Lynda Tavakoli

Haibun (2) 

 

 

this is not your child 

this is the child of someone 

 else’s suffering 

 

 

The beginning of winter and a child burrows her small body into the chilling cage of her brother’s brittle ribs. She hears the faint crackle of marrow within his bones soughing from under his vest, beneath the sodden wetness of a jacket their father left behind. Rain still drenches through the plastic walls and roof of their tent, saturating a mattress that absorbs any comfort in their sibling embrace. This is their world. And tomorrow, that other world has already forgotten.  

 

 

once upon a time 

when children sloshed in puddles 

there was only joy  

 

 

 

 

Lynda Tavakoli lives in County Down, Northern Ireland, and is a professional member of The Irish Writers Centre. She has won several international poetry and short story awards and been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. Lynda’s recent poetry collection ‘A Unison of Breaths’ is published by Arlen House and her digital book with video ‘Unbroken/The Gaza Poems’ is published by Live Encounters Publishing.