#Haibun Thinking ( #haiku ) – The Missing Anchor

Submitted for Haibun Thinking

Welcome to Haibun Thinking. A weekly writing challenge to create verse, prose and haiku using prompts from all areas of art including – but not limited to – movies, songs, art, photography etc.  It is all explained at the link above.  Visit the link above to submit your haibun and read others.  If you don’t know how to write the form haibun, there is information about it at the link above too.

This week is literature week.  The prompts are a quote from literature and a photograph.  I have chosen to use both this week.  Please enjoy The Missing Anchor.

Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
(Mary Shelly – Frankenstein)

A Pair of Anchors Outside Dover’s Western (Cruise) Docks

On Sunday morning, a family filed into the church and took seats in the pews roped off for the family of the child being baptized. It was a special occasion and everyone greeted each other warmly. The greetings didn’t include phrases like, “It’s been so long since we’ve been together”, or “We need to get together more often.” This was because most of the people present had seen each other a few weeks earlier for the funeral of the baptized child’s great grandmother.

The congregation settled in their seats and the service began. The baptism occurred fairly early in the service and the child’s great aunt looked around while the event took place. She was looking for her mother. No it wasn’t a case of waiting for a ghost to appear. She looked around because it dawned on her that this was the first of many special occasions where the anchor of the family wasn’t there and this brought about a feeling of profound change.

This winter they gathered

The next time without anchor

Life changes, renews