Ludmila Balabanova
Sunflower Field
He begs in the street in front of the supermarket. Old man, wearing worn out and dirty clothes. Every time he tells a different story—sometimes his wife is ill, sometimes his daughter has vanished and they have no money to look after the grandson. I’m always in a hurry and never listen to him till the end of the story. I drop a coin in his hat and pass by. He never looks at me. He probably knows what I think about his stories.
rush hour swift shadows of passers by barely touch me
This time I’m not in a hurry and decide to hear his whole story. Finally he looks at me for the first time. I understand it is a true story. His eyes are blue like my father’s. My father, wearing a clean shirt, jacket and tie even at home, even when he was already very ill. Dignity, my daughter, dignity above all!
looking at the setting sun a beggar and i
About the Author
Ludmila Balabanova is a computer engineer and has a Ph.D. in literature. Her books include nine collections of poetry (including three haiku books and a haibun book) and a book of criticism on haiku (Haiku: A Dragonfly under the Hat. The Power of the Unsaid, 2014). Her haiku and haibun have won international awards, including both a Touchstone Distinguished Book Award and an HSA Merit Book Award for her collection of haibun, Sunflower Field (Zhanet, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2019). She currently lives in Sofia, Bulgaria.