I’m doing double duty today as my poem, Fissure in the Room counts as an entry for NaPoWriMo and as a contribution to dVerse’s Poet’s Pub. The fine people over there asked us to create a haibun using communication as the theme. For those that don’t know, a haibun is a prosimetric literary form originating in Japan, that combines prose and haiku.
The piece below is dedicated to a friend I was once close to.
There was a fissure in the room.
I felt the ice as it crusted over us. The sun shone, but the rays were too far away to touch. They covered others nicely, but couldn’t reach us. It was odd, our fracture, because you were once my ear’s best friend. Hearing your voice felt warm and familiar. It made me feel connected to hope, to life. You reminded me what a friend could be. There was no drama between us. We shared important memories and documented life beneath the surface of what was usually expected.
Let truth be told, as loving as you were, I knew that connections made you uncomfortable.
I hoped you’d grow to know that it was okay to depend on the dependable. But the day when I stumbled and needed support, more than you could give, our foundation shifted, leaving me on the ground. The impact of the fall bruised me, but I was still willing to dip our hurts in forgiving glue, but not you. You faded away to your safe place, away from obligations, which others see as imperfect unions. No friendship is perfect, not even ours, even though it was close. Close, but no cigarillo.
An invitation
Led to skating on Wednesday’s
Only to stop short
Can you share a thought about communication poetically in a haiku? How about adding prose and a haiku?
© 2016, TamekaMullins. All rights reserved.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Close, but no cigarillo. – This made me smile. 🙂
I’m glad there was some joy to be found in this piece. Thanks for visiting. 🙂
So sad to see friendships evaporate. I have to wonder what has happened to a person that makes them incapable to reaching across that fissure.
It’s hard to reach back after you walk away. I’m learning that. So I try not to walk away as much as I used to. But I can’t do it alone. ;-(
Yup! Close only counts in horseshoes 🙂
Indeed!
I’ve always heard that close also counts in hand grenades and government work. 😉
Wow. Your first haibun….you most definitely have the gift. This rift breaks my heart. Been there…felt that. It is such a loss, that pulling back, that walking away. Thank you for this heartfelt response to the prompt. You have been missed.
Thanks so much! You’re giving me the confidence to write more of these. Sorry for your experience in this space. Losing friends sucks.
Do we ever know who are friends or not until it’s tested? The fear of dependence is so deep, the fear of weakness… So sad when it has failed the test.
It’s so easy to be friends when times are good. It’s when we’re tested that we learn who we really are to one another.
the first line has a foreboding effect…wonderfully woven….
Thank you!
Friendship takes a risk…and a reciprocal investment. An emotive haibun!
Yes, reciprocal! Thank you!
No worries!
It is so very hard to lose a friendship, especially one that meant a lot…. I like the honesty of your poem! Good stuff.
Thanks Mary!
It is sad when a friend you thought you could count on turns out to be undependable and distant. Hopefully we find these things out before we are in dire straits. I love your closing haiku. It stands alone but also somehow perfectly sums up the prose. Very nice.
Thanks so much Linda.
A very sad story.
It is. Thanks for reading and for your visit.
Lots of reflection here. It is interesting how some people cannot interact at certain emotional levels, as if stunted in this area. I like how you end with a little humour. “Close, but no cigarillo.”
I do too. I guess we all can become stunted at some point. Thanks for visiting.