Her name is Serafina, but most just call her “that crazy lady.” She wears paisley pantaloons and a tassel-trimmed shirt. Her dark hair, streaked with silver, falls in wild waves down her back. It is said at night when storms loom, she wraps herself in a God’s Eye quilt and twirls like a dervish in the open field near her villetta. The tiniest of flutes are attached where her eyebrows once were, and as the wind grows the lively notes weave their way throughout the village, soothing the sick and the broken-hearted.

born mute 

this silent child 
of fire and stardust 

joyfully 
she shares her song 
with earth and sky 

—Long-Listed Finalist in MacQ’s Cheribun Challenge #2

Terri L. French

formerly served on the Board of Directors of The Haiku Foundation. She is past Southeast Regional Coordinator for The Haiku Society of America and former editor of Prune Juice Journal of senryu and kyoka. A prior editor of the online journal Haibun Today, Terri now serves on the editorial team of contemporary haibun online (aka cho). She and her husband, Ray, and dog, Chaka, spent four years as full-time RVers and now make their home on a mountain in Huntsville, Alabama.

Author’s website: https://www.terrilfrenchhaiku.com/

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Precipice, haibun by Terri L. French in cho (Issue 18.3, December 2022)

⚡ Tongue-tied, haibun in cho (Issue 17.3, December 2021)

⚡ Tzur Hei HaOlamim, haibun story in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 5, October 2020)