Global Haiku • Spring 2013
Dr. Randy Brooks

Tracks in the Snow

by
Heidi A. Zapp

This is a small collection of the haiku that I am most proud of. These are not all necessarily the best written haiku, but a lot of them mean something to me. “Tracks in the Snow” is a line I used in a haiku that didn't make this collection, but is meaningful to the haiku here. When snow is fresh, tracks are easy to find and follow. However, as more and more follow, the original tracks become lost and faded. This semester I have experienced a lot of moments of being lost and not able to find the original path I thought my life was taking. I've had to deal with curveballs of every sort, from a rough break up to a family member being diagnosed with and eventually passing away from cancer. My haiku come from these curveballs. They are gritty and real yet wonderful and alive at the same time.

Reader, please take what you will from my haiku. Allow yourself to be submersed in the season and the situation. A lot of them are not easy to deal with, but those make the happy times so much better. Thank you for taking the time to read them.

Heidi Zapp
Millikin University 2014
Sociology Major | Criminal Justice Minor
Alpha Chi Omega National Sorority | VP Ritual and Fraternity Appreciation
Club Italiano | Vice President

autumn storm
dancing for no reason
I trust you

interstate motel
stench of the sins
committed before us

under the blanket
their cold toes find
each other

admiring from afar
the boy with the deep blue eyes
briefly, they meet mine

I find my answer
in your
     hesitation

chilly hospital
for the first time
daddy cries

no I don’t want a drink
you look like
my ex

without you
I can't breathe
with you

white room slowly fills
well-wishers, flowers, balloons
nothing he can do

hand over heart
one child forgets the words
to infinity and beyond