Saturday, November 8, 2014

Haibun

 
                                                 A CITY CORNER 
 
A hot day in June.  New York City.  Lower East Side.  People-watching from a corner café.  The tourist busses rumble down 5th Avenue, holding at the corner light.  Sun-drenched double-deckers.  The tourists squinting.  A guide, standing before one group, microphone in hand, lips moving.  “And here we have…and there…and there…”  No need for me to hear his words. 
 
This is a casual area of the City.  No high fashion, society or career women, no Brooks Brothers.  executive suits walking around.  Every-day New Yorkers, shopping the small markets and delis, the dollar stores.  Dog walkers, three and four canines marching like obedient foot-soldiers.  Mommies with strollers, delivery vans, loading, unloading.  The occasional vagrant or bag-lady shuffling through the corner trash-cans, wary and abandoned expressions on their faces.
 
                                                    shielding my eyes
                                                    from the sun glare
                                                    Walk.  Don’t Walk.
 Contemporary Haibun On-line, Sept. 2009
 

4 comments:

Bill said...

A very good haibun. Prose and haiku work well together, and the last line brings all to an effective resolution in which nothing is resolved.

Adelaide said...

Thanks, Bill. New York City is a true melting pot, providing glimpses of variious lives, so many of which are far apart from my own.

Adelaide

haiku-shelf (Angelika Wienert) said...

The double meaning of "shielding my eyes" (sun/poverty) is very interesting.

Adelaide said...

Thank you for visiting and commenting. Please come again.

Adelaide