The Smuggs Chronicle – Part Three
Haibun Poetry
Third Day: August 20, 2013
A note on our windshield reads “Please don’t park in front of our home (duh!) Thank you.” Mira’s face flushes red. She soon snaps aloud about the anonymous author. I feel a numbness settle, a sign of swallowing my anger. Once we drop Frankie at camp — or slightly before — a surge of heat and trembling begin as a red-hot rage erupts, from which I shudder even as I inform guest services.
brittle, thin skin
crows peck at the entrails of
a dead squirrel
Wind on an outcrop facing Mount Mansfield refreshes. I sit Indian-style, close enough to the edge for Mira to panic. I invite her to join me.
The long ascent left us sweaty and sore. I forgot how steep the incline of the Sterling Pond trail is. The vista before us repays us in full.
Spruce, evergreen tops
slow climb of a cable car
up Mansfield
A family fishing
Away from the bustling shore
A boy casts his line
Catches a log
As his father casts his own nearby
Mira and I bite
Into a perfect plum
Gaze across the pond,
The island
Madonna Peak above
ripples
a butterfly and dragonfly
race to shore
Frankie sings the lyrics to Imagine Dragon’s Radioactive at the family karaoke. David, singing next to him, sounds monotone and off-lyric.
Until he belts out the chorus.
So loudly that Frankie lowers his mic, curls his lip into a frustrated frown as the last “radioactive” goes silent.
video cutting
a forgettable performance
this summer night
Movie on the lawn: Madagascar 3. With Larry and David. Without Mira, Larry’s wife and daughter.
starlight cinema
the struggle to find a
comfortable position
read from the beginning: Pre-Smuggs Insomnia, the Prequel
more by FRANK J. TASSONE
photograph by Will Langenberg
