Haibun: Still--By Angelee Deodhar--India

Haibun: Still

Elsa, our cocker spaniel, the color of sunshine poured out the bottle, a scintillating shade of gold unmatched on any palette is dying. A breast lump removed a few months ago has extended its tentacles into her spine and her hip. Eleven years old [77yrs in human years] she can barely walk out the door or get up to have a drink of water, her appetite gone she is virtually starving and not accepting the food that we try to put in her mouth.

Checking over the place where our vet buried his dogs, I look at our small patch of mud which would not hold her. She looks at me with limpid eyes knowing her time has come. What she doesn’t know that I will play Kevorkian when the time comes. How will I know when to let her go?

    our walk slows
    as she sniffs fallen blossoms
    - approaching storm

Previously published in Albatross Autumn, Winter 2008

Angelee Deodhar, an eye surgeon by profession is a haiku poet, translator, and artist. She lives and works in Chandigarh, India. Her haiku/haibun/haiga have been published internationally in various books and journals, and her work can be viewed on many websites. To promote haiku in India, she has translated six books of haiku from English to Hindi, which she distributed for free. These bilingual books include: If Someone Asks: Masaoka Shiki's Life and Haiku (2005),Classic Haiku: A Master's Selection, edited by Miura Yuzuru (2006), Ogura Hyakunin Isshu: 100 Poems by 100 Poets (2007), Children’s Haiku from Around the World–A Haiku Primer (2007), Indian Haiku (2008), and The Distant Mountain: The Life and Haiku of Kobayashi Issa (2009).