Dru Philippou
Beyond the Horizon
My neighbor sits by the kitchen window, watching the snow melt around a chestnut tree as she unwinds another length of yarn. Instead of our usual chatter, she shares her longing to revisit Florence. She imagines the Mercato di San Lorenzo, where pasta is freshly made, the baskets of dried porcini, and creamy stracchino. The scene shifts, and she’s strolling along the Arno River, inhaling the aroma of espresso and delighting in a scoop of vanilla gelato. She hears a mandolin’s melody in the piazza, and the laughter of locals at the outdoor cafes. Now she’s at the Uffizi Gallery, standing before Botticelli’s Primavera, captivated by the goddess Flora, scattering flowers. She closes her eyes; her knitting needles tap like tiny hammers.
a nightingale’s song
weaving a trail
through the starry sky
so many dreams threaded
to this edgeless world
About the Author
Dru Philippou lives in northern New Mexico, where hiking in the desert wilderness nourishes her spirit and her writing. Her haibun “Afterlife” won first place in the Haiku Society of America’s 2021 Haibun Awards. Also, her haibun “Pilgrimage” won first place in 2023 in the same contest. She is the author of A Place to Land, a tanka prose memoir.