Satori haibun

After Haverford left, Solange turned to Nicholai and asked, "Does it bother you?"
"What?"
"That I was a prostitute."
The question surprised him, " It's an honorable profession in Japan." 
"It isn't in France."
"I'm not french," Nicholai said, "There's nothing about you that I find to be anything but delight, a joy, and an honor. 
Solange came into his arms, kissed him lightly on the neck, and said softly, "I think I'm falling in love with you."

satori
from across the roji
fallen frangipani

"And I with you." His words surprised him as much as the actual emotion, something he had not felt for years, something he had taught himself never to feel again. It had been his experience that anyone he loved went away, usually through the portal of death.

in the cha-shitsu
the hiss of the kettle
between words

*The prose excerpted from Don Winslow's Satori, Grand Central Publishing, June 2011