Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Haibun Monday–No Ke Me, Tree Buds

Thanks to dVerse for an interesting idea and theme! 


We've had a horrible winter. According to statistics, Europe has gone through the darkest winter in a hundred years, with Paris getting only ten hours of sunlight in January. In February, the wind shifted and came from the north, bringing freezing rain and snow. Storms struck, and our front gate was blown off.

I came downstairs in time to see it swing wildly, then slam shut so hard the hinges broke. The gate is metal, over seven feet tall and five feet wide, and very heavy. When the wind slammed it, and the hinge broke, it slewed sidways and wedged shut against the wall. I was stuck inside and had to yell for a passerbyer to come help me push my way out. The gate is still not fixed, it's just leaned up against the wall and chained there. I keep asking the building manager when it will be repaired, and he just shrugs and says "In the spring".

Which is why I've been watching our forsythia lately. The branches have budded - any day now they will bloom. And when they do, I will march into the building manager's office with a flowering branch, place it on his desk, and say, "It's spring."


Forsythia by Jennifer Macaire

When winter loses
Its grip, the forsythia
Are the first to know.





15 comments:

  1. Nice description of the wind damage and the gate needing repair and how you plan to remind the building manager.

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  2. Forsythia - our huge bush is getting ready to bloom. The first to bloom is always the flowering quince, then the Japanese plums, then the forsythia and cherry blossoms. I like how you are going to remind the building manager! Nice haiku as well.

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  3. Oh, yes--forsythia are the benchmark of spring. You write such clear descriptions and I love that snarky attitude. Would love to thhe the building manager's response. Thanks for joining in.

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  4. Your building manager will undoubtedly get the message. Time to work, BUD! And meanwhile here in Colorado we've had the dryest winter I can ever remember. I still feel like winter should be on its way. I get a kind of anxiety thinking that it's March and that we may not actually get any snowpack, for the first time in, forever maybe?

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    1. My cousins live in Colorado, and they have the same worries. Far too dry! I'd love to send you some of our rain, if I could!

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  5. A great snippet leading up to spring - you made something ordinary, interesting! And the haiku is a wonderful follow-up.

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    1. thank you! the gate has been on my mind lately, lol

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  6. Wow, that could have been dangerous. Forsythia is a great opener for spring, that glorious yellow!

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  7. Yes, I was lucky I wasn't going through the door at that moment - I had my little dog with me, and was sick imagining what would have happened to him!

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  8. love the eagerness of waiting for a bud to bloom and be used as a tool of influence, beautifully scripted haibun and the haiku is brilliant

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  9. Love this... maybe bringing flowers to your building manager is the perfect way of doing it.

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