A Montebello School Commencement

by Frank J. Tassone · 29 March 2018

Frankie and I are home. He’ll soon put on a light-green, button-down collared shirt, a pair of Khakis and dockers. We’ll drop him off at the middle school and take our seats in the auditorium.

For his promotion ceremony.

I blinked, and my son turned eleven and graduated elementary school. Years like sand through clenched fists is a cliché for a reason.

Passing breeze all the songbird chicks grown up

Author’s note: this haibun commemorates my son’s elementary school commencement in the spring of 2014. He’s currently a freshman in High School!

photo by Celia Ortega

Frank J. Tassone

Frank J. Tassone lives in New York City's "back yard" with his wife and son. He fell in love with writing after he wrote his first short story at age 12 and his first poem in high school. He began writing haiku and haibun seriously in the 2000s. His haikai poetry has appeared in Failed Haiku, Cattails, Haibun Today, Contemporary Haibun Online, Contemporary Haibun, The Haiku Foundation and Haiku Society of America member anthologies. He is a contributing poet for the online literary journal Image Curve, and a performance poet with Rockland Poets. When he's not writing, Frank works as a special education high school teacher in the Bronx. When he's not working or writing, he enjoys time with his family, meditation, hiking, practicing tai chi and geeking out to Star Wars, Marvel Cinema and any other Sci-Fi/Fantasy film and TV worth seeing.