This is my first attempt at one of these, having seen them a few times at Bjorns, (http://brudberg.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/ligo-haibun-how-she-left/), most excellent page. Go there, check it out: it’ll engage you…
So, these are the rules:
The haībun format here for the Līgo Haībun Challenge is as follows ~
A paragraph (more than one paragraph is fine, or just a few sentences) in prose form of either
- a descriptive passage , or excerpt from a story/or previously published post
- an explanation
- a tale
- a travelogue
- a news item
- a recipe
and
- the haiku/collection of haiku related to the text to close. The haiku should be as authentic as possible, with therefore no syllable count, no capitals or full stop.
And this is my contribution…“Down at the Crossroads.’
Decisions.
Decisions drift past people every day, wafting on life’s breeze, going whichever way they wish to, with no concern – good or bad – about the consequences of their actions, nor the repercussions that might follow from one person engaging with the most tempting of fleet thoughts. They live and hover at junctions – both physical and metaphorical – of peoples lives and are acted upon when the time is right and proper, irrespective of the person or the place, spreading their consequence far and wide.
Most decisions are wanton, able to be taken by anyone at anytime and, as such, are available to any and all who come upon them. They are cheap, available and plentiful in their inconsequentiality.
Other decisions, choices, life choices are not so simple or whorelike. They are person-specific, symbiotic and irrevocable in their repercussions, and their consequences ripple through the fabric of life indefinitely…
McCallister was in the midst of the latter type of decision, and her heart was pounding granite inside her chest with the weight of it.
Every piece of shopping had been bought – white palmed tension had proven that, such was the amount in the carrier bags – and she was ticking the final item from her list of desperation when clarity hit her and she suddenly realised-
She didn’t want to go home.
It wasn’t home.
It was hell.
The world span, the granite inside turned to dust and she felt warmth spread across her face at the realisation, swiftly followed by confusion in her head, the thoughts skittering colt-like in her mind, bucking from lobe to lobe and heart-beat to heart-beat.
There were no children now, no job, no mortgage, no…no no no no no!!
There were some friends, some neighbours, some possessions, some photos….Oh God Oh God oh gOd…
She put down the carriers and reached for a nearby lamp-post, steadying her very real anxiety against its fake Victorian frame. The irony didn’t escape her, but her breath did as she took a moment to calm her nerves.
What now? What to decide? Which way to turn?
life’s journey enhanced
so detrimental to some
increased by circumstance
kingsley clennel-white 