Greyhound, 1938: A Haibun

Written for dVerse Haibun Monday:
Wedding Bliss. Our host, Mish, ask us
to write a haibun based on a wedding.
Dedicated to my godparents.

The bus pulled out of the station at dawn …. diesel and cold coffee, strangers arranging themselves for the long, quiet journey. She had packed a thermos and sandwiches wrapped in wax paper; he had only a newspaper. Six hours is nothing. Six hours is a commute, a matinee and dinner, sleeping on a rainy night. But six hours can also be a whole life, folded small enough to fit between two bus seats. Somewhere past the state line they stopped being strangers. She told him about her sisters. He told her about the war he was sure was coming. The sandwiches ran out before the conversation did. By the time the driver called Raleigh, they had already built a house out of six hours …. walls of small talk, a roof of shared silence, a door they both, without saying so, intended to walk through together. They took separate rooms that night, out of propriety, or maybe just to prove to themselves it wasn’t a fever that morning would break. It didn’t break. At the courthouse, no family, no flowers, no rehearsal …. just a clerk, a witness, and two people who had run out of reasons to wait.

last stop, engine dies ….
two people step off the bus
no longer strangers

NAR©2026

This is “Chapel of Love” by The Dixie Cups

Haibun Monday: Wedding Bliss

^{Everything on the elephant trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicate, and may not be used without permission. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.}