WHR Winter 2021/22
David Jacobs, United Kingdom
Great Save
The greatest one I ever made took place during a friendly kickabout in Kensington Gardens. Their centre forward burst through unchallenged and I dived to push it round the post which happened to be my own jacket. Actually, it flew directly over said jacket and an ‘in off the post’ argument could have been maintained. But our opponents accepted the save had been made, no doubt sensing it would be unsportsmanlike to deny such a brilliance.
The patch of parkland in question is overlooked by the Royal Garden Hotel where the England football team celebrated their World Cup victory in 1966, and when a legendary goal was deemed to have gone in off the bar rather than having bounced back into play. We still don’t know.
reunion
just a few
of us left
What’s in a name?
The one on the handwritten driver’s board is for a certain ‘Mr Spanton’. I’m mighty relieved, on behalf of both Mr Spanton and the driver, that the first ‘n’ has not been omitted.
the difference
between ‘landed’ and ‘arrived’
this small espresso
☆☆☆
Aju Mukhopadhyay, India
Climate Change
It has been the trend in Peninsular India for some years past that the rainfall continues unabating beyond the usual seasons. In fact precipitation for the last hundred years has become unpredictable. Winter rains are the result of Noth East monsoon; tiny Pondicherry has become the worst victim along with some coastal regions in Tamil Nadu.
Weather usually follows the norms markd by seasons. This norm was observed by man. Nature usually remains in its place for centuries. It tolerates some usual deviations but its tolerance cannot be unlimited.
armed with scientific knowledge
man violates Nature wantonly;
Nature breaks its norms willy-nilly
Continuous low pressure at the sea level accompanied by gale from time to time made life not only monotonous but a risky enterprise. It was before the schools declared holidays or virtual closure due to continuous rainy days when a teenager girl stopped at the footpath level standing at knee deep water, while coming from her school at the end of the day. Her friends had left earlier. Her home was quite at a distance from theirs. Passersby were fewer in such foul weather. Afraid of the situation she tried to guess how deep could the water might be if she came down on the road. She fearfully realised what the teacher was trying to explain the other day in the class; the cause and consequence of the Climate Change. She wasn’t a high jumper and was alone. With trepidation she was trying to touch the water below the footpath when she beheld that her father was advancing towards her swiftly wading through the water, half drenched as it had been drizzling still. Someone must have informed him, she guessed.
When she climbed on his shoulder with her baggage she felt highly relieved, felt once again that her father was really strong and stout. When she came near home some of her neighbours looked at her with astonishment, some of her neighbourly friends smiled. Becoming shy she felt yet that it had been far greater that she was safe there than getting ashamed.
doubt still assailed her
if her father would be able to overcome
more effects of climate change!
Viruses aren’t the only Triumphant Evils
Germs, bacteria, bacilli, fungi and viruses come to test how receptive are men, how do they welcome them. They find most welcomed by those who do business with them but go when repulsed by the robust obstinate humans. They stay with men but often stay away, attacking when the ground is safe and favourable.
viruses come and go
take their toll from the weakest
flee when attacked by the strongest
Usually lifestyle, living condition and environment determines if someone would have disease or not but the inborn condition of health of an individual also counts. And there are other unknown factors; some suffers more some less from diseases; simple logic fails to fix the cause. He suffered many times from viral attacks like malaria, many times during childhood, typhoid, pneumonia, dengue and more of which he did not keep all records. Medical treatment, medicines, patient’s willpower and above all luck saved him throughout his life even after undergoing major operations and difficult tests.
up to the ripe age
he suffered from many viral attacks-
painful but survived!
He was a globetrotting traveller, birdwatcher and lover of the wildlife. Many are the fields he travelled whether by car or jeep, reaching by long distance train journey or by air flight but each time he enjoyed most while walking inside or close to the field. Not by viruses or anything else but usual wear and tear of the bone structure of the body is what he suffers now from, called spondylitis. It has almost crippled him restricting his movements.
joyous was he when climbed the hills
stalked the woods, ran through runways;
grieves most when he can’t move few steps ahead.
But it was never in his life that a disease fixed him at a place. He moves inside his home and takes a different type of corrective medical treatment. Hope is what makes him move from field to field; regurgitating the past experiences; ruminating in ways imaginary and futuristic.
who’s there after all
to check the one who moves
by sheer lifeforce!
☆☆☆
Sondra Rosenberg, U.S.A.
It was a cold winter in Chicago, and I was convalescing from the flu when my husband and I decided to adopt a kitten we’d seen hanging around our apartment building. The kitten was friendly and litter-box trained. His mother belonged to a downstairs neighbor who was eager to find a home for him, as he was the last of a recent litter. For the first four days after his arrival, I stayed home while my husband went to work.
The kitten, whom we named Augustus, which we immediately shortened to Gus, was playful and cuddly, and spent a good deal of time on my lap purring, climbing on my shoulder, and nuzzling my neck. After four days I was finally well enough to go back to work. On the first morning, I put on my boots, then my heavy winter coat and woolen hat which I had placed on a chair by the door. Gus watched me with an expression I can only describe as a puzzled. When it became clear that I was leaving, he started to howl. I could still hear him howling as I made my way down the stairs.
The next morning, as I put on my boots, coat, and hat, he tried to block the door but failed–I was able to nudge him gently aside with my foot, and scoot outside. Again, I heard him howling all the way down the stairs. On the third day, he sat by the door watching me put on my boots and reach for my coat. Suddenly, he leaped onto the chair, grabbed my hat and ran under the living-room couch. He emerged sans hat with what I swear was a very smug look. There, he seemed to say, now try to leave. It took me a good few minutes to retrieve my hat from under the couch, but retrieve it I did, and left. He never tried that again. He couldn’t, because from that time forward, I put my hat on first.
outmaneuvered once
by a cat, I’ve learned to put
my hat on first
☆☆☆
Neena Singh, India
Aurora
“Lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light and from death to immortality.”
~ English translation of a Sanskrit verse from Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
A bright palette paints the canvas of the sky pink and purple. The honeysuckle on the wall bursts in clouds of orange and the fragrance of the night queen lingers to scent the morning. I witness the transition of light—dark to brightness and breathe deep the blossoming flowers.
Spiritual texts say at this time the nectar of Divine Oneness flows in the universe. I carry this abundance inside the home.
borrowed light the moon makes gourds glow
☆☆☆
Adelaide B. Shaw, U.S.A.
Color My Mood
Late winter and thinking yellow. Crocus, forsythia, daffodils, tulips, dandelions, buttercups. Hillsides, roadsides, gardens, lawns, fields. Wild yellow and tamed yellow. Everywhere and anywhere. I crave yellow. Need yellow. And, there it is, in a catalogue.
A keyboard click, credit card number punched and a package arrives. Outside is cloudy, wet, cold. Inside is warm and I am Spring.
sunshine
coloring my imagination
a yellow dress
The Baby Sitter
A man and a two-year old boy. The man sits. The boy tumbles about, runs, bumps into objects, investigates shelves, tosses around magazines and books, falls, cries.
Grandpa and toddler
hand in hand
slow moving shadows
Early Days
The first spring living alone. Days remembering. Days filled with thinking about decisions, the pros and cons about one thing or another. The usual routines, shortened by half, cooking , laundry, marketing. The days of lengthening light, blossoming flowers and warming breezes.
early morning
sunshine dappling the ravine—
my life inside
daffodils
tightly closed buds waiting
for nature’s release
☆☆☆
Brijesh Raj, India
Lord of the Crinkly
The fault line running down your massive Doberman face is the knife-edge of another’s dissonance. The pain and fear another’s cross to bear. Too scarred for a home, too friendly for a farm, too big for a flat … In truth too noble a creature to crave kindness and table scraps. And yet, you hunt corners to cringe in. Curled tight, spilling over the edges of soft door mats or the first available lap.
yak bone
the welcome crunch
of furniture spared
You love buttered toast and stolen toys but your greatest treat is a head massage. All alone, you head press against a settee corner until you free fall from sigh to sleep. And yet, from REM to wide eyed stare takes just a whisper of biscuits unwrapped.
Birista flavoured
the tan highlights
on that widening grin
World Haiku Review 