Way-back Wednesday 8/9/17: …a grandmother the morning after… #haibun #haiku #poetry

The Morning After

Her cup of Columbian Supremo cools atop of a crumpled copy of the Journal News, spread over the kitchen table like leaves across the lawn. She stands by the kitchen sink, inhales another drag on a half-smoked Marlboro, stares out the window, not seeing the cracked blacktop or the rust on the basketball hoop.

There’s no sign of yesterday’s overcooked prime ribs. No trace of aroma from the baked yams or steamed avocados. No echo of the scream, the slap.

The silence.

Just her, another grandma. With a swollen right cheek.

 

Stained window

Breeze scattering leaves up

Any Maple Street

 

 

Previously published in Image Curve, August 1, 2014

 

Photograph from unsplash.com

 

UPDATE: for dVerse Poets Pub–MTB–January 4, 2018