Learning English

passing clouds
the changing colours
of bougainvillea

Opening grandmother’s handmade notebook at C, I find a carob pod and recall her story about John the Baptist subsisting on its fruit. At M, her favourite culinary herb, a sacred myrtle leaf. Certain of an olive leaf, I turn to O and imagine those maroon orbs bobbing in brine. At J, a sweet fragrance rises from the page; I see her gathering fresh sprigs, pockets stashed with jasmine.

marginalia
vines entwining
cursive script

 

 

(Originally appeared as an Honourable Mention in the Genjuan International Haibun Contest, 2015.)

Published by

Dru Philippou

Dru Philippou is a Cypriot–British-American writer and poet with a lifelong career in education. A two-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize in 2006, her work appears in twelve editions of the Red Moon Anthology and other notable publications. Philippou won an honorable mention in the Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award 2008, and in 2024 she took first prize in the Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards. Following honourable mentions in three Genjuan International Haibun Contests (2015, 2017, and 2018), among others, her "Afterlife" won first place in the Haiku Society of America’s 2021 Haibun Awards, and "Pilgrimage" received the same recognition in 2023. Her tanka prose memoir, A Place to Land, was published in 2022. Philippou has lived in northern New Mexico, since 1995.

4 thoughts on “”

  1. That is so beautiful, thank you for sharing, I am feeling very moved and connected to my own Gran, a migrant learner of English.
    R.

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