Teak haiku

Dreaming fully awake

Paean to my Parents

Downtown B train
Brushing past me on the downtown B train, she wore her anger outwardly, like a worn red sweater, pilling on the chest and fraying at the cuffs. Mine seethed, like a seam separating as a thin, clear thread was pulled toward the sneer behind an invisible hand. Etching: attributed to Pieter Jansz [...]

“Monday” / cinquain
Monday Foggy morning. Mesmerized, she’s alone Nihilistically. Subway Lurches. photo: Sion Fullana

Rosa offered me camarones
Rosa offered me camarones, but I didn’t know what camarones were. She says she wants to bring me one of her favorite ceviches that she eats in her native Ecuador. I speak broken Spanish and she speaks broken English every day when I pick up my towels at the gym before I go into the [...]

2 First-Graders on a street corner
My 6-year-old son, Teak, was walking with my wife and came across a school friend, Ella, on the corner of 84th and Amsterdam. Ella is in front of him and turns around with a smile. Ella: “Teak, you are so weird!” She faced ahead once more. My wife Karen’s thought-cloud: Uh, oh. What did he do now? Ella, [...]

Bennett’s First Birthday [Conclusion]
The raindrops pattered onto the clear plastic cupcake containers and sounded like tiny timpani. Though partially protected at the bottom of the two bags, the rhythmic drumbeat augmented my steps, moving up Columbus Avenue and around 83rd Street, heading west. Fifty feet to my left, the red painted façade of Engine Company 74 glistened with silver [...]