An Awaited Turn in the Weather

by Frank J. Tassone · 15th November 2018

Brightening. Darkening. Crabapple leaves viewed through the dining room window alternate between a luminescent emerald in golden light and drab green.

Until the daylight dims to a dull-gray. Thunder rumbles in the distance. The long-predicted storm approaches the bucolic village named “Beautiful Mountain.” Our home.

upside-down leaves
“Phantom of the Opera”
drowns out the robins

Falling rain. Streams batter the crabapple leaves, and leave behind a shimmering film. They rattle the roof, the deck. The block is under a waterfall.

All while we read, write, cook, listen to Josh Groban. Dry and indifferent, save for a muttered “when” and a flurry of words.

slowing rainfall
a lone crow caws among
glistening leaves

Photo by Antonino Visalli

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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.