A haibun and a poem by Elizabeth Crocket

Not Like Fred and Ginger

I am laying in intensive care in the semi-dark after my second cancer surgery. I am hallucinating that I am on a narrow stretcher that is racing down a highway at night and I am terrified. I am unaware that I am sobbing until I hear the kind and calm voice of my surgeon. He tells me this is hard work, it's not like in the movies, that people don't just dance off into the sunset. I hear myself mutter "just like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers" and he says yes, as he pats my shoulder.

invisible spider web

twirling

a single leaf

Captured

suspecting something amiss

we didn't see Depression

ready to pounce

its talons soon locked into you

in a surreal sort of way

me, just pumping powerless

adrenaline

watching you in battle

with an ugly beast

howling its name

Depression

Elizabeth Crocket has been shortlisted for the Haiku Foundation Touchstone book award for her collection of haibun Not Like Fred and Ginger. Her short form Japanese poetry has been published in Modern Haiku, Shamrock Haiku Journal, Haibun Today, A Hundred Gourds, Cattails, Never Ending Story, The Heron's Nest and more. Her poetry has been published in Word Riot, The Mastadon Dentist, Penny Ante Feud and more. Elizabeth's short fiction appears in RKVRY online journal, AscentAspirations, Horror Bound and many more. Elizabeth dreams of knocking on every school's door in the land to read her picture books, yet to find a publisher.

Note: See several journals that publish haibun and haiku here.

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