Spring Suite, Finis: Apple Trees

Haibun

The apple tree in our backyard has grown back. Dad and I trimmed it way back before he died. It’s full again, leaves covering its crowning branches in a mane of green.

Frankie’s step remains at the base of the trunk: a two-by-four we nailed just below the trunk split. The one he uses to climb while on base during our games of tag.

Like my own stomp step that I used to climb my own apple tree so many years ago.

small blossoms
a robin ascends
to her nest

more by FRANK J. TASSONE

photograph by Lizzie Guilbert

Image Curve’s Manifesto

Tags: haibun 90 nest poem 90 robin spring

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.