DRAWING BLOOD
She is young and willing. How could he, an aging widower, resist her soft and waiting arms, her silky and responsive body? The coming baby is unexpected, a problem for him and his family.
“My best friend!” his daughter says.
“She’s no better than a whore,” his mother and sisters say. “Worse than marrying Enid, that lazy, frizzy blonde.”
Enid had coped with gin to silence the criticism, until the gin silenced her. And, where had he been all those years? Cowering in the background, afraid of the harpies’ condemnation. A coward then. A coward now.
Should he pay her off? Send her away and wash his hands? Even lye wouldn’t clean them or strip away his guilt.
a pile of ash
and cigarette butts–
the night
ticking into dawn
burning memories
revelation
a sharp stab
drawing blood–
can he suture the wound
with repentance and grief?
one bad turn
does not beget another–
there is a new road
free of litter and detours
leading to a second chance
Haibun Today, Tanka Prose, March 2018
7 comments:
I am slow!
Yesterday when I visited your blog I totally missed the signs.
So glad I was called away before I commented. It is all about choices and chance.
thanks, Sandy. This was first published as a short story. I rewrote it this way to give it a secondl life in a new genre.
Adelaide
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__Two signs of 4, not far from 44; a turn to the left and life reclaimed. _m
Second chances. Happy those who get them
You haibun is sincere
Much love
Thanks Magyar and Gillena. I find the placement of those signs confusing Rt 4 and Rt 4 , but very near Rt 44. If you're not familiar one could get lost.
Adelaide
Adelaide, this is -JUST- to point out this rare "road crossing" of good old RT-44.
__ This oddity of today: Kathy and I were in Ogunquit Maine, and we parked alongside a pickup truck from Millbrook New York... according to its rear licence plate mount. In and of that coincidence... I said to the driver, "how are things along Route 44?" He laughed, and we spoke for a while, he said he was with a fire department near (or in?) Millbrook, I wish I had gotten his name.
Thanks Magyar for your story. We have a good Millbrook fire dept. Used them a few times in emergencies.
Adelaide
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