THE TOWER
The Pan Haiku Review issue 4, December 2024
]]] beautiful [[[
monochrome dawn
the rise in rice
on 64 fields
]]] cosmic girl [[[
wardrobe clothes on every hanger, shelf her hand about to pause she reaches deep inside there’s nothing to wear a t-shirt, jeans, despite… so anything goes… with a black leather jacket highs & lows in a rush now earphones, bag she runs why do I even go there? i am fine. i’m fine. i’m fine. i’m hot black coffee and she dances on the kerb
]]] she’s leaving home [[[
a hospital destruction site view tourist spot
]]] decode [[[
On the psychosomatic ward, sitting on the floor of a corridor with her back to the white wall: the woman (T-shirt, jeans, leather jacket) who almost looks like a girl. Another cup. Almost everyone else is standing, waiting for the psychoeducation session. When the meeting starts, the psychologist hands out the usual form on which each patient is asked to fill in how they’re feeling; hers remains blank. One corner of her mouth is pulled up slightly, the other is dripping from her nervous fingers onto her thighs.
]]] zombie [[[
macro with no macro in its micro soup
]]] spirits [[[
The psychotherapist still has the taste of hazelnut cake on her tongue. She looks intently at the woman who has already been here for three weeks as a patient and whose hands are clenched in her lap. She tells her how it is. That she has hidden all the little splinters deep inside her flesh so that she doesn’t have to see them. All the sutures bear the same headline: Function At All Costs. Then life shook her, shook her until the pressure was too much. And then? She wanted to die. She came here. Was everything, and everyone, every splinter of herself. One by one. The therapist sees the tears gathering in the corners of her patient’s eyes, slowly beginning to run down. She fights for every single one.
]]] haunted [[[
at the end of summer solstice the cork is out
]]] hurricane [[[
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Beautiful (Christina Aguilera)
Cosmic Girl (Jamiroquai)
She’s Leaving Home (The Beatles)
Decode (Paramore)
Zombie (The Cranberries)
Spirits (The Strumbellas)
Haunted (Poe)
Hurricane (I Prevail)
pi & anne 