This Is All For Sue: A Story Told in Haiku

Author's Note: This story was accepted for publication, and was published in the Spring 2014 issue of "Flip the Page", a publication of Thurber House, of the great American author, James Thurber.




I wake with a start

From an innocent dreamland.

My head’s killing me.

I have a hangover.

I played at a bar last night

And got really drunk.

I wipe drool away

From the corners of my mouth

And slip on a shirt.

The couch I slept on

Was really comfortable,

Much more than my van.

The girl’s name is Sue.

She is just my type of girl:

Quiet and brunette.

She said she’s a fan

And it would be an honor

For me to crash there.

After my music,

She offered a place to stay

Because it was cold.

A low in the tens?

It was just too cold for me

To sleep in my van.

I accepted it

And I slept on her warm couch

For many hours.

As I looked around,

I noticed the room was weird.

It had changed since night.

Once a living room,

It changed into a dungeon

And I was trapped there.

I tried to get up

I was chained to the stone wall

And could not get out.

Suddenly, Sue’s here.

She says she loves me

And my music too.

She loves my lyrics

And my rhythm and my rhyme

She wants me to stay.

“Forever”, she says,

“You can write poetry

And sing me the words.

“You can play guitar

Sweetly like you do always

And love me for good .”

With no other choice,

I agreed to her strict terms

And now I’m trapped there.

I write songs for Sue

I write poems for her and

I write haikus.

However, there was

a condition to my life:

Write only for her.

She has threatened me

With harm if I contact help

From the outside world.

Judging from the pics

Of men all over the wall,

She’s done it before.

The dog probably

Took care of the ones she no

Longer loved anymore.

Hopefully I’m loved

Much longer and more than the

Others she has kept.

Sleep doesn’t matter

The music doesn’t matter

Only Sue matters.

This isn’t for me,

This isn’t for the police,

This is all for Sue.