Frank J. Tassone hosts haibuns at dVerse Poets on Hiroshima Day, 2018.
Hiroshima Memorial Ceremony
Reading a thin volume, Hiroshima, in high school, I experienced the mushrooming disturbance to our world. Horror, regret, tragedy and fear seared my mind as images of devastation burned into my imagination. An unthinkable calculation dropped this surreal weapon of ghastly power on unsuspecting civilians.
Visiting Pearl Harbor as an adult, I attempted to understand the whys of warfare. An over-reaching dictator and ultra-ambitious military attacked unsuspecting soldiers, provoking enmity. Havoc, death and destruction ensued, trailing a bloody wake across the “Pacific” (sadly ironic) theater.
Until it finally ended with not one, but two, atomic bombs. Who fully realized the fallout of unleashing such force? Acts of war escalate exponentially, beyond all expectations of reasonable retaliation. Let ugly history be our strict teacher and awful memory be our future deterrence.
Chèvre at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai challenges us to write “fusion troiku”: combine two classic haiku into one, then use for first lines of haiku series of three…
fourth of july
was his favorite
holiday when
dad, guardian
of hot punk,
would light
our sparklers;
we’d laugh and
dance in grass,
swirling
happy sparks
in waves of
patriotism.
now he comes
to iowa to
visit us, his
(temp) guardians,
and to watch
fireflies & fireworks,
celebrating his
independence
from assisted living;
he laughs aloud
at whistling stars
and deaf-defying
bangs.
how can i
bear the time
when dad’s
bright spark
explodes and
sizzles out,
smoking white,
and all my
holidays die?
i’ll remember
the laughter,
holding warm
embers.
a poem in my pocket 
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