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Naomi Nomura

A Couple

She spends this winter beside her husband’s bed. These past three days, his eyes have been closed.

Sinking into the chair, she gazes at him. Up and down his chest moves shallowly. She spots his hand. White. Getting closer, she touches it. Warm and smooth. She lets her fingers glide on the palm. Once its skin had been thick with calluses; when he came home from a long day at work, she would touch them timidly, ask if they hurt. He always smiled and shook his head. After retirement, he helped her garden, and his hands turned brown and rough as he tilled the soil and pruned the tall trees. . .

She laces her fingers through his. The wedding band spins easily.

Fifty-five years. . .

She stands up and bows.

Yabu Tsubaki
enriches
the ground too

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Note: Yabu Tsubaki is a common Japanese winter tree that is called Wild Camellia or Camellia japonica in English. “Yabu” means bush and “Tsubaki” means camellia. Although some people say there is something ominous about it because it drops the flowers as a whole like a head chopped off from the body, people find the aesthetic in the flowering tree and it has long been cherished.

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About the Author

A Japanese housewife, Naomi Nomura is the mother of two sons and lives near Tokyo with her husband. She encountered haiku in English in 2017, and it soon joined her other interests: English, cooking, and ballroom dancing.