It was my turn to make breakfast for two.
Me and my grandson, six years old.
”You know how to make scramble...”

“Course I do!” he butted in
before I’d finished the question.

“...without breaking the shells of the eggs?”

“You can’t, Grandpa!” A tone in his voice
as if he thought I was gaga.
For he has already a sensible understanding
of structures and strengths of objects.

“I’ll show you, then.”

I took a needle, 
pierced an egg top and bottom,
pointed end and round end,
slowly blew out the yolk and the white.
Something I had not done
since I was a child
of about the same age.

He looked at me with scorn.

“If you could put it all in again,
that would be real cool!”

—Previously appeared in Journeys: An Anthology of International Haibun, edited by Angelee Deodhar (Nivasini Publishers, 2014); republished here by author’s permission

David Cobb

taught English as a Foreign Language for many years and has written numerous course books for learners of English. These have been, and still are, used in classrooms in many different countries.

His interest in haiku was sparked in the 1980s, and in 1990 he launched the British Haiku Society. Serious interest in the possibilities of haibun in English began in 1996 when he was a prizewinner in the Woodnotes (San Francisco) International Haibun Contest. His 5,000-word haibun, “Spring Journey to the Saxon Shore,” journal of a 100-mile bicycle ride, followed quickly on the award and has been hailed as seminal for the form.

www.davidcobb.co.uk

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Marching with Tulips and What Happens in Haibun, reviewed by Naomi Beth Wakan in Contemporary Haibun Online (Volume 9, Number 2, July 2013); in this discussion of Cobb’s recent haibun collection and its companion volume of commentary, Ms. Wakan refers to the latter as an “invaluable introduction for writers seeking to explore the haibun form.”

⚡ Writing Reality: Fictional Haibun Stories by Ken Jones in Contemporary Haibun Online (Volume 3, Number 3, September 2007)