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Chris Bays

Under Hailstones

Some in the family say that they still recall Ruth roaring out of a Kentucky holler, wind blowing back her long, auburn hair, as she rode Cherokee Freedom, a motorcycle she built from spare parts, over two thousand treacherous miles to the Golden State.

“Teen girls in the 1950s were stereotyped as soft and obedient, but Ruth,” papa says, “fought like a man with her fists . . . to keep me and her other brothers and sisters safe from the grandpa you never met, who coughed up his lungs from mustard gas, coal dust, and moonshine rage.”

A friend of hers tells us how Ruth worked at an aircraft assembly line, bought a bar, married a naval officer, built a home near L.A., and piloted a one-prop plane across the country.

She was almost six feet tall, broad shouldered, with muscular hands, yet she could not protect herself from a husband she called “the devil with sunshine charm,” miscarriages she referred to as “my lost souls,” and alcohol that flooded her liver like “liquid lightning.”

thunderclouds . . .
the bruised blossoms
of a rose

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About the Author

Chris Bays is a father, college professor, art lover, chess player, foodie, and trekker. His awards include first place for best unpublished haibun in the 2020 Haiku Society of America Haibun Awards contest. Chris’ haiku and haibun have been published widely including several appearances in the Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku.