Getaways
Pushing the mop in a figure-eight, a custodian washes the floor. Waves build, crash against the front of his bucket as he rolls it on quiet castors across the tiles. Yellow A-frames warn, Caution: Wet Floor, while travelers rush past him, tracking in more dirt with wheeled suitcases, on their way to Bora Bora, the Bahamas, Tahiti.
evening break
stars unspool
across the sky
(Originally published in Genjuan International Haibun Contest, 2017, Honorable Mention)
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.
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Lovely….
I like the ‘unspool’ imagery!
summer sky
pillows on blue
along the long trail~~~
I enjoyed reading your haibun. It feels lonely to me, and alone, no one really cares that he is working hard as they roll their suitcases on their way to somewhere else.
Stars unspool…beautiful, a splendid contrast to the prose.
Love your imagery of stars unspooled, stars unspoiled…quiet aloneness with the universe.
Thank you all for taking the time to read. I do appreciate all your comments. Dru
Beautiful!! Loved The the image you have created ?
Thank you, Vandana.
Ah the constant cycle of cleaning only to have it all undone to be cleaned again. I'm also reminded of Sisyphus who was condemned to do the same thing over and over and over again.
As someone who regularly washes dishes at home, and always was, from the age of six years onwards, I feel I am still washing those same dishes so many decades ago. :-)
warm regards,
Alan
Thank you very much for reading, Alan.
Reminds me a bit of doing housework – seems that I just get the house back in order only for everyone to arrive back from work, school and college to wreck it all again!
Nice work.
marion
Yes, and the custodian doesn't have to go far to relax from his labours. Peace and quietness are available to each of us at any time, any moment; we don't have to go rushing to exotic places. Just look up at the stars.
Thank you for reading.
Having worked as a cleaner I can relate to this, making the ordinary extraordinary.. :)
Yes, exactly. Thank you for reading.