A Fraught Encounter
Haibun An overcast sky, with whirls of gray splattered over blue like spilt paint on a completed canvas. Trees struggle to bud. I open the trunk of my weather-stained Legacy when Ilana calls....
Author: Frank J. Tassone
First Experience
Haibun The family room lights are off. Daylight streams through windows flanking the chimney. She and I sit on a plaid-upholstered couch in an awkward silence. We broke up last week over an...
Another Day Passes
Haibun The sky deepens from blue to violet. The last dull, orange line above the darkened Ramapo Mountains fades. A distant cloud carries a hint of it along. Twilight comes. It’s Friday. The...
Legacy’s Beginning
Haibun She has grime on her hood and quarter panels. A torn fender and scuffed tire guards. Some scratches. But she is midnight black with heated leather seats and a moon roof. Her...
Outback’s End
Haibun A plastic box filled with a white-russian colored film. Corrosion in the slots where cylinders fit. A technician’s solemn expression: “In twenty years, it’s always a cracked engine block.” After 9 years...
This Year’s Christmas Tree
Haibun Deep Evergreen. Full. Red and gold balls and bells; tops with gilded bands; Russian-esque spires all around. Four sets of lights; the white nina doll ornaments Mira loves. The giant bow. Our...
Morning in Late Autumn
Haibun Bare branches stretch toward a gray sky like the gnarled fingertips of a Norse Crone. They sway in sudden gusts of wind. Fallen leaves rattle on paving stones. A solitary hawk circles...
Thanksgiving Weekend 2012
Haibun Poem Thanksgiving Day, November 22nd Another wave of sickness strikes. I’m on my knees over the master bath toilet. Orange-and-brown bile fills water and stains the porcelain rim, along with the painted...
Hurricane Sandy Serenade – Part Four (Finis)
Haibun Poem November 1st Another morning at the library: He watches POV videos, while I delete email. We cringe at the fire alarm a careless patron sets off when she steps outside to...
Hurricane Sandy Serenade – Part Three
Haibun Poem October 31st “Frankie says it’s the worst Halloween ever.” “Why?” “No pumpkin to carve, no trick-or-treating.” I look at my mother. “Why can’t he tell me himself?” We pull up to Secor...
Hurricane Sandy Serenade, Part Two
Haibun Poem October 30th Wisps of breeze and a steady drizzle replace the shearing winds and punishing torrent. Our trees stood. Branches, twigs and leaves litter both yards and the driveway. Our house...
Hurricane Sandy Serenade, Part One
Haibun October 29th I tremble starting the job. Ebony curtain rods are still in the original packaging. So are the wall anchors and screws. I had already lost myself to a fever-pitched rage over...
