Sleeping Beauty
Helen Ruggieri
 

The woman from the nursing home has escaped into the blackberry brambles. The security guard is trying to get her out, but he is so young and helpless. The old woman is crying, begging him to let her go. "I want to go home," she says over and over like a litany, a mantra.

She has forgotten. This is home.

That's how it is. Night coming on, briers encircling the castle. And the prince? He won't even kiss her.

at twilight
the world lies gentle
on its reflection

Helen Ruggieri has had haibun in the World Haiku Review, Charabanc, Bottle Rockets, Spoon River Review, and essays in Cream City Review, The Heartlands, Quarter After Eight, and a new anthology from Putnam/Tarcher — How I Learned to Cook, edited by Margo Perin. Her haiku have appeared in World Haiku Review, The Mainichi Daily News, Daily Yomiuri, Presence (England), and in Modern Haiku. She recently won the 30th annual Hart Crane award sponsored by Icon at Kent State University for her poem, 'A Japanese Fable.'

Copyright 2009: Simply Haiku