Haibun for Hope

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Our children are saying to us “What does it matter if this person is a boy or a girl? Who cares? A person is a person.” My daughter said it to me. And my friend’s daughter (ten years older) said it to her. In their generation, the garden is more important than the appearance of individual plants. After all, weren’t we all sprung from the same dark womb?

The thing is this. We have scars like pale tiger stripes caging our souls, intermittently blinding us to the view. And we carry burdens, bending us to the grizzled matrix of the world. Our daisy eyes, their sparkling purple darkness, long ago closed for sleep, never again to open in wonder just because another day arrived. When you have seen a few thousand dawns, it’s easy to lose their magic in a handbag or let it slide away unheeded behind a couch. I put on my glasses and missed a decade, or so it seems.

But humanity’s body is full of regenerating cells. We are growing older as a species, and in the mirror, our reflection will continue to change. If we look about with eyes untrained by our own gaudy woes, we might see that the bones of it are here… a new being, diaphanous and strange to us.

my daughter opens her umbrella
              and I'm sprinkled with yesterday’s rain.
         truisms spin to face backwards

Written for Go Dog Go Cafe’s Wednesday Haibun Prompt “joy or hope” with Donna Matthews

Published by abigfatcanofworms

We all walk in the dark. But if we hold hands, perhaps the dark won't be as scary.

Published

20 thoughts on “Haibun for Hope”

  2. I like your haibun. We have several young people who are questioning gender stereotypes in our family. I support them in the quest to stand outside of old mainstream thinking.

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    1. I don’t think every generation have seen it that way, though. I think the upcoming generation is different. I mean, not that long ago homosexuality was illegal in a lot of places. Now it’s not. Now gay people can get married. Gender fluidity is normal for this generation but it certainly wasn’t for me as a child. I am just listening to an interview with the first ever female rock’n’roll roadie. That was the ’70s. Things do change. Humans have changed a lot. Sometimes towards being more accepting of each other. Sometimes less.

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      1. You know what I mean by that, yeah?Everybody at the same level. Nobody above anyone else.

        Yes, there are people who do. I see it. I know you do from your writing. Probably we follow the same bunch of people, and they do too. But nonetheless, -isms still exist in society and it’s not only old people who propagate them.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. “…a few thousand dawns” you say? How about like 26 thousand dawns? Be and learn, eh? What better teacher?

    Your haiku closer just totally blows me away. Thanks

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Thank you! I’m sorry I haven’t responded to all your lovely invitations. It’s been a tumultuous month. I need to do something with my writing and I really appreciate your support. I just haven’t got my ducks in a row at the moment.

      Liked by 1 person

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