Bottomless Treasure Haibun

My memory is a bottomless treasure trove, full of beloved moments. Photographs are the jewels, the pieces of eight, the doubloons. One day in early summer, we visited the Bronx Zoo, and my children were enchanted with the animals. We rode the Wild Asia Monorail, and heard about deer and buffalo species protected from extinction. Some of the animals were extinct in their natural habitat and were reintroduced to the wild from the Zoo’s protected herds, which had thrived in a large enclosure for over a hundred years.

Zebras, giraffes, deer,
Species preserved from the past,
My children held rapt.

Note: This was prepared for this week’s Ligo Haibun prompt, treasure.

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Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

March 5, 2013

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The Lost Dwarvish Treasure

Long, long ago, in the land of dwarves, an amazing treasure was forged. One part was a helmet that let the wearer see through stone, wood and water. The second and last part was shoes of gold that made the wearer silent and invisible. For generations, the king of dwarves held these treasures until the great battle of Stone Circle, where the dwarves were defeated by humans. The dwarf king was fatally wounded, and the humans took the treasure, never realizing what they possessed. The treasures were child-sized to humans. Many more generations passed, and the treasures became forgotten by time and memory, until Simon visited Castle Archer and Castle Thunder on his summer vacation. Although Simon missed his family during his travels to see his school friends, he didn’t miss his archenemy, his neighbor Tristan.

Simon liked to play hide-and-seek, hunt the treasure and capture the castle. One day he played a new game combining all the other games with his friend Sir Alec of Castle Archer. The boys called the new game hide-and-hunt. They made an old dirty helmet the treasure, and asked Sir Alec’s father to hide it. Simon ran from hiding place to hiding place, found the treasure and captured the castle by hiding the treasure in his suitcase without being seen. Sir Alec’s father let him take the dusty old helmet as a prize for winning.

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