over whispered tales 
of love and betrayal 
we break bread—

the aftertaste 
of rival memories 

lingering 

It’s an age-old story. The all-too-familiar one of greed and hatred. Lust and longing. Murder and misogyny. And yet in this darkened dining room, a handful of movers and shakers have asked me to share a meal seasoned with their latest news. Hollywood is coming to town, they tell me. Perhaps it’s time to lay the past to rest. Perhaps the truth will finally set us free.

around the table 
the rumbling of another 
time and place ...

beneath the tall grass 
long dormant roots rise to 

sing their songs with grace 

—Short-listed Finalist in MacQ’s Cheribun Challenge #2

Margaret Dornaus

holds an MFA degree in the translation of poetry from the University of Arkansas. Her own short-form and free verse poetry appears in numerous journals and anthologies, including Contemporary Haibun Online, I-70 Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Minyan Magazine, Naugatuck Review, ONE ART, Sheila-Na-Gig, and Silver Birch Poetry. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, she received a Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award in 2017 for Prayer for the Dead: Collected Haibun & Tanka Prose (Singing Moon Press, 2016). And as founding editor of Singing Moon Press, she feels privileged to have published several short-form anthologies, including Behind the Mask: Haiku in the Time of Covid-19.