Coming Home

by Frank J. Tassone · 2 February 2017

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Haibun

I empty Mom’s closet. She pulls herself out of bed and into her wheelchair. Frankie plays Minecraft Pocket Edition on my iPhone.

Mom pages the nurse’s station twice before Miria arrives with her discharge documents. We negotiate a mistaken prescription order and endure more delays. Finally, a PCA arrives to help wheel her out.

After more than a month, Mom’s coming home.

passenger seat
the hum of her portable
oxygen machine

more by FRANK J. TASSONE

photograph by Ezra Jeffrey

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Tags: Hospital medicine mom morning mother nurse sick

Frank J. Tassone

Frank J. Tassone lives in New York City's "back yard" with his wife and son. He fell in love with writing after he wrote his first short story at age 12 and his first poem in high school. He began writing haiku and haibun seriously in the 2000s. His haikai poetry has appeared in Failed Haiku, Cattails, Haibun Today, Contemporary Haibun Online, Contemporary Haibun, The Haiku Foundation and Haiku Society of America member anthologies. He is a contributing poet for the online literary journal Image Curve, and a performance poet with Rockland Poets. When he's not writing, Frank works as a special education high school teacher in the Bronx. When he's not working or writing, he enjoys time with his family, meditation, hiking, practicing tai chi and geeking out to Star Wars, Marvel Cinema and any other Sci-Fi/Fantasy film and TV worth seeing.