Tom Painting
Prologue
She doctored the liver with onions. Mashed potatoes were a staple. So too canned corn. Everything salted and salted again when it reached the table. She smoked Winstons while we ate and I asked about my father, somewhere on the road.
family tree the empty shell of a cicada
About the Author
Tom Painting teaches junior high at the Paideia School in Atlanta, Georgia. Since 2000, his students have had winning haiku in the Nicholas Virgilio Memorial Haiku Contest. His own work has been widely published and anthologized.
Tom,
I read this over and over. It’s so relatable. You’ve taken an enduring snapshot and the haiku speaks volumes. The exact same branch grows on my own family tree.
Jackie
Beautiful and enjoyable. What a recipe😁
This could be my grandmother! She did, in fact, smoke Winston’s and grandpa was a cross-country truck driver, always on the road. She was a pretty good cook, even if it was standard fare and a bit over-salted. Your haibun brought back memories.
Now you introduce us to your mother, who, unlike your father, had real grit. No judgment call here in my response; only the beauty of your truth-telling in this haibun pair, one for each parent. Your knowing how to write and to be spare enough for mother and father to come alive on the page from you, the writer who is the parent, after all. Deep bow.
Donna