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WHChaibun - Maria Steyn

 

Haibun Selections
Paul T. Conneally, Editor
Loughborough, UK

 

Absence

Maria Steyn
Johannesburg, RSA

Every morning, during the past week, I awake from the same dream.

Somewhere in an unfamiliar, but pleasant place, I play the viola again. Only now there is always something interfering; too much rain, I fail to tune my instrument, miss an orchestra practise, or enter the stage only to disappear. Trying to explain, my words are blown away by the sound of instruments searching the concert A.

We perform at different venues: the conservatory, amphitheatres, the botanical garden, a wine farm, old cathedrals and a broadcasting studio.

sunlit leaves
washing pegs hold
the pages

There are camps in a nature reserve. We practise alone among mountains before joining together to play in the clearing. Squirrels cross from tree to tree,  turtledoves flutter through leaves.  

rehearsal at five
the violinist and bassoonist
absent again

At night pebbles rolling on the riverbed.

 

awake after midnight
the conductor

drinking alone

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