Christine Shook

Cape May

Father decides to take me in the new convertible to the beach. His hair flies off the bald spot and shrieks upward in the wind.  We’re not used to conversation. I ask him who was the best president of the United States. He laughs. It is a long drive through New Jersey. The land is pooled with black oil and lantana stalks snake through broken concrete. We pull the top down and finish the drive in silence.  

He booked a bungalow by the beach. The next morning, we walk through the surf and he talks about mom. How he loved her in the beginning, how her hair was black and her face soft and frightened. I dive into the ocean and he lifts me over the waves.  

No longer
changing her clothes
for dinner
she clings to bourbon
in a worn bathrobe

---

About the Author

Christine Shook lives in New York City and has been writing tanka for over 20 years. She studied with Clark Strand, author of Seeds from a Birch Tree. Her tanka appeared in Ribbons and tanka prose in Haibun Today.