Twelve Haiku for the Christmas Party Scene in The English Patient
Christmas Eve Party:
mistletoe crushed under foot,
kisses strewn about.
Sap of white berries
seeks darkness of floorboard cracks:
the recesses swell.
Winter desert sun
ferments the honeyed sand dunes:
Sahara made sweet.
From the portico,
the jingle of crockery
to canteen carols.
The husband dresses
as Santa – yet a lover
unwraps the wife’s dress.
There’s nowhere to veil
the thoughts of the mouth inside
a room full of eyes.
His fingers like teeth
tear at her dress – the fabric
shivers down her back.
Hunger takes the shape
of a woman’s clavicle,
how its marrow sighs.
On one side, bagpipes
span the window – her fingers
fan out the other.
The hall fills with noise,
while the alcove is all shushed-
up exhalations.
What wind has carried
them to this moment of throats
and tongues and grey light?
Between them they’ve opened
a secret room filled with storms
and locked themselves in.
.
.
Elisabeth’s pamphlet, Glass, was winner of the Paper Swans inaugural pamphlet competition. It went on to be a Poetry Society Young Poets’ Network Summer 2016 ‘pick’. She has won prizes in numerous poetry competitions, including Café Writers. Sightings is her first full collection. www.elisabethsennittclough.co.uk
Abegail Morley 
An imaginative use of an haiku sequence to “play” an intense movie scene. Excellent.