My Old Man's Words
Each day I listen while fumbling through blank pages
this day* I equal* Dad’s breathing of this Earth’s air ‘til final silence Viceroys and cancer, doing the work of killing, took his breath away at nine, his absence a void aching to be filled —my Old Man was gone as curtain rises for life’s next act … where’s my script, since he left the stage? each day I listen, while fumbling through blank pages, for my Old Man’s words * January 31, 2026—29,350 days
Photo 1948
Find a 50-word adaptation of this haiku quintet in Microstories: When 50 Words Is Enough FREE TODAY ONLY(January 31). Please rate and/or review. New edition 2026.01 (check title page) replaces previous. Delete from your Kindle device and re-download new free edition. What are microstories? These precisely fifty-word prose poems are original, personal, and true (no AI), often metaphorical, yet incomplete. Some are dehydrated previously published haiku quintets; others are newborns. No backstory is provided for context. Each is the tip of an iceberg. Vast regions are left to your imagination—that dream-like fluid that re-hydrates and extends this 50-word stem. Unlazy readers, without even trying, create the unseen subsurface portions, emerging Rorschach-like from your own rich mental underworld. How? Simply notice the image that appears to your mind's eye, the tug at your heart, the punch to your gut. They are your stories, too, esteemed coauthor.
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