Seized, a haibun
The used IBM typewriter sat like
a black jagged hill of possibilities
on the coffee table
My fingertips tingled just being near it
the deep scent of dust & technology
hung around it like a halo
I leaned down & gently pressed
my pointer finger onto the ‘I’
Nothing happened except
immoveable denial which is
something
“It seized,” he told me
I pulled back, felt a band of
disappointment belt around
my ribcage
“Oh,” I said, cramming my hands
into each other my fingers burning
with delayed desire
“I can fix it,” he said easily, casually
later he watched repair videos on youtube
my fingers, satiated, wrapped around a pen
writing a late-in-the-day haiku
my thoughts seized on everything
but the pain of grief
a sudden taking
the force of surprise that grips
a moon on my lips
What is a haibun? Haibun is a poetry form that combines a haiku with a prose poem. Haibun prose is usually descriptive. It uses sparse, poetic imagery to evoke a sensory impression in the reader. The section of prose is then followed by a haiku that serves to deepen the meaning of the prose, either by intensifying its themes or serving as a juxtaposition to the prose’s content.
VANESSA SHIELDS, writer 