For One Single Impression: Doorway
A slightly older one and two new haiku
Closing TimeBy Edward S. Gault
My children came out and told me
That you wouldn't take their money.
You told them you were closing.
I can appreciate that you want to get home;
And we did come late.
The streets were confusing and we got lost.
The people that we asked for directions of
Said they didn't know.
(Also they didn't seem to care).
So here we are.
We are leaving very early tomorrow morning.
And it will be a long ride home.
The children don't get to go on these vacations often.
In, fact, this is their first time out of the state.
We waited until they were just the right age.
We had to save a long time for this trip.
So we just wanted them to see it.
It wouldn't take very much time at all;
And it would have meant so much
For them to be able say they had seen this.
Its not like we can come back another day.
When I was their age, my own father brought me here
Your Rangers told the most wonderful stories
They made the history come alive
In a way my own teachers never could.
And my sister and I even got our picture taken
In one of your colonial costumes.
These memories are why we are bringing them now.
So Please mister, won't you let them in, just for a minute.
They'll be right out, I promise!
Just for a minute.
6/29/08-Two Haiku:
They found him sprawled out
On a city park bench, dead
-heaven's doorway.
I remember youthe way you looked walking out
-and I hear the slam.
Copyright 2008
13 comments:
That last haiku is quite strong. Really captures that sort of intense memory.
hi Edward.
'They'll be right out, I promise!'_is touching and throbs with the palpable emotions
of a sensitive dad and eager kids[a true to life experience of Rules v/s (un)common-sense]
"Heaven's doorway"_a tragedy in three lines {for ur visit & reading of the lines_winter>spring}
..Many Thanks..
An amazing perspective to heaven's doorway.
Experience that lack of compassion must have been a rite of passage--a doorway--for your kids.
I enjoyed the haiku. I hear the silence that followed the slam in the second one.
Oh, I so know that feeling of being minutes too late for a special event. Too bad. The haiku are just great!
Such saddness this week. You conveyed that feeling well. I like the park bench Haiku and photo.
The first one--What happened ?
The second two were very touching.
All three were very good.
Such thought-provoking words! Great!
both rendered a sublime and wistful mood
I heard that slamming door so often in a past life. Today the door slides open gently.
I can't say thanks for the memory, but I do say thanks for the contrast.
I like both your Haiku. The second one had a resounding impact on me!
i had to smile reading closing time... i imagine the grand canyon closing and coming all this way... as if we could possibly close the canyon... loved yr kuz as well... heaven's door, amen..awesome photo... the last one a painful memory at best... great response to the prompt!!
Your first poem made me sad for the kids. I hope they eventually got in. The two haiku are both wonderful, but I especially like the last one, which carries such a potent and powerfully complex set of emotions in very few words.
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