Member-only story
Funeral
A haiku with a quiet reflection
funeral —
she puts the bookmark
in another book
—
The funeral is over, and the house has returned to a silence that feels unfamiliar. Among the ordinary things left behind, a book lies closed, its final pages already read. Perhaps it rests beside a favourite chair, where so many evenings passed in the quiet company of stories.
She removes the bookmark gently, lingering for a moment over the cover. There is something final about finishing a book, even when its characters and familiar passages remain in memory. Another volume waits nearby, its pages still unexplored.
There is a particular sadness in knowing that some endings cannot be revisited, however much we might wish otherwise. The bookmark slips between new pages, a small gesture that seems both ordinary and momentous. One story has reached its conclusion, while another waits to be read.
First published on NaHaiWriMo.
Curious how these small moments become haiku? I’ve written a short guide called The Three-Minute Haiku System, which shows a simple way to turn an observation into a draft haiku in just a few minutes.
