Entrance
She lets herself out to play—slips from her goldenrod ranch house into the crotch of a wooded valley.
between tall pines
In a fluid swoop, the girl becomes a knight on horseback, canters into a cracked warp of time.
ghost trees face
A clearing—she slows her pace. Eyes upwards, she tracks sky-blue orbs which rise from an obscure barrow. The horse noses its edge
the earth
then tumbles in—
She knows the fall will end her.
Her horse, a crumpled warrior.
bracing against
womb’s wall—
an urge to be born
About the Author:
A member of the Austin Haiku Study Group and the Haiku Society of America, Melanie Alberts is writing a haibun memoir. She is a contributing editor of Lone Star Poetry: Championing Texas Verse, Community, and Hunger Relief and can be found on Instagram @clair.circles.spirit.art and Twitter @NaturalMedium
Visuals
Image Credits in order of appearance:
alevision.co, Mario Álvarez, christian buehner, Helena Lopes, Syed Ahmad, photo montage combining moon image by Rastan on istock photography and image by alexander grey from unsplash, Valentin Lacoste, Bhushan Sadani. All photos available on istock.com unless otherwise noted.
Graphic Design: Teresa Berkowitz
Tangled Locks Journal 