After the Funeral
On the night flight back to Manhattan, I replay our last phone conversation. Hear the slurred speech from his deathbed as he asks if I’ll be coming home soon. The pain in his voice when I try, as jauntily as I can, to tell him my plans—plans both of us know won’t accommodate a face-to-face reunion.
Now, miles above the darkened ground, I practice what I might have said to him if I’d had one final chance, repeating the words like a mantra. Thank you for opening your heart to me. For loving me. Thank you . . .
landing strip
the skeletal path of light
on the runway
Haibun Today 8:3, September 2014
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About Margaret Dornaus
I’m a writer and a teacher, as well as a haiku-doodler. I live in a beautiful woodland setting, surrounded by native oak forests, that inspires me to record haiku snapshots of luna moths and our resident roadrunner, and even an occasional black bear as it hightails it across the top of my road, my mongrel dog barking at its heels as I watch with wonder.
My work as a travel writer has appeared in publications from The Dallas Morning News to the Robb Report. You can find examples of my travel writing–as well as excerpts from a travel memoir I’m working on–at my other WordPress site, Travelin’ On.
What more than that do you need to know? Only that I started this blog with an eye toward collaboration. Got a haiku? Send it my way. . . . I’m all about new visions & voices.
Best, Margaret
Haiku-doodle 
Very moving, and beautifully crafted.
Ah . . . , thank you, Jenny.
Beautiful haibun-and love the haiku, partnered so well with the prose. A poignant cautionary tale.
Mary
Thank you, Mary. I very much liked your “Sagebrush” as well; after reading it, I thought it paralleled my own haibun in an uncanny way.
Perfect allusion Margaret – greatly enjoyed.
Thank you, Mike . . .
Very moving indeed.
Thank you for your kind words . . .