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MacQueen’s Quinterly: Knock-your-socks-off Art and Literature
Issue 5: October 2020
Haibun Story: 136 words
By Lew Watts

Temples of Gods

 

It’s my job—same as Dad’s, and his dad’s, and his—so I guess I’m lucky. And it’s important. I mean, if people like me weren’t here, who’d look after them? They don’t need much. A touch of heat in the winter, the odd swabbing down with bleach during summer. If these walls could talk, they’d thank me, but they deserve it. Before the plague, people came here to work. The buildings looked after them, kept them safe. They’ve been empty ever since. Man, when those doors open each February, and the people flood in with their ancient files, and pens, and styrofoam cups, you can sense what it must have been like. I often join them at worship, shed a little tear.

winter solstice
a shaft of sunlight spreads
up Wall Street

Lew Watts
Issue 5, October 2020

is the author of Lessons for Tangueros (poetry), Marcel Malone (novel), and Tick Tock (haibun collection). His haibun have been widely published and anthologized, and in 2019 he was elected into the New Resonance community of haiku poets. Originally from Wales, he now lives in Chicago, USA.

 
 
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