Haibun at the dverse pub

At the dverse bar and grill, they are serving up two quotes by Kahlil Gibran:

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.

The challenge is to create a haibun using these two quotes for inspiration.

A haibun is prose followed by a haiku.

Challenge considered...

Challenge accepted!

Here is my haibun:

My best friend has a cold. "One more week to go," she says, "because every cold lasts two weeks." Shall I mail her a box of tissues? No. I don't want her to like me any more than she already does. There's a thin line in a friendship between a single man and a married woman. What would her husband say if she received a box of tissues in the mail? How does he manage to put up with his wife having a bachelor for a best friend in the first place? It is a mystery to me.

Summer becomes fall
The common cold rears its head
Achoo! (pardon me.)

After The Fox Come We

The latest Ligo Haibun prompt is a photo:

Through this snow-floored forest, a scarlet fox, and after the fox come we, never quite catching sight, following the light impressions of his paws... In Native American lore, there are differing beliefs among tribes about the sagacity of following a fox. Some believe he is a wise guide, and will lead to safety and bounty, while others believe him a trickster, who might well lead you to your demise. Uncle John Redcorn laughs and says he will lead us to a hole in the ground before too long. But when Uncle John stops to take tobacco just after we lose the trail of the fox in a rocky creek bed, I can tell he is secretly relieved.

elusive red fox

john pulls long on his cob pipe

which way now, uncle?

Progress

The Ligo Haibun Challenge prompt this week is "South America".
I regret to admit that I am profoundly ignorant about the topic.
My first thought was, "Montezuma, ruler of South America, was conquered by Cortez."
A little research showed me that Cortés conquered the Aztecs, ruled by Moctezuma II.
So I wrote a haibun about that, finishing it before I realized that the Aztezs were in North America - Lol.
Taking another stab at the prompt, I called up an image from "The Lost World" - a novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle I read long ago.

So this week, I'm sharing two pieces: my first haibun about the conquest of Mexico, and my second 'Lost World' response to the prompt.

Moctazuma II was the ruler of the wealthy Aztec Empire in the early sixteenth century. They say Moctezuma drank only the chocolatl - the divine drink - chocolate flavored with vanilla and cooked down to the gooey consistency of honey. And that he served this potent beverage to the conquistador Cortés in a golden goblet. Writing to Charles V, Cortés claimed the Aztecs believed him to be the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl. 

Perhaps their eyes met 

Over the golden brown brim 

The king and his doom 

Deep in the South American rainforest, off a tributary of the Amazon, a great mesa looms, swathed in clouds. Down the plateau's sheer eastern cliff spills a glorious waterfall. At the top of the falls stands a tribesman, leaning on his spear. In the distance, smoke rises from a new lumber camp.

Primordeal brave

Surveying the world below 

Dozers crawl his way