Lynn Edge

Breaking Tradition

Mack, a black man, was the head custodian in the country school where I began teaching. Every morning he came in with a smile and a hello. He kept the school spotless, made small repairs and was genial while doing it. He was also a minister.

My future husband, Carroll, taught in the same school as I did. After he proposed, he asked me how I felt about Mack marrying us. In 1967, this was unconventional, but I considered myself a sixties girl.

Another teacher hosted the wedding at her house. Mack had been asked to perform the ceremony, yet when he arrived, Bible in hand, he questioned, “Where’s the preacher?”

“Mack, you’re it,” Carroll reassured him.

morning bell
a history lesson erased
from the chalkboard

---

About the Author

Lynn Edge lives in a small Texas town. She’s written haibun since 2002 and her work has appeared in journals such as contemporary haibun online and Frogpond, as well as in the contemporary haibun anthology series and Best Small Fictions 2024. She’s published two books of haibun with Red Moon Press: Unsaddled (2022) and Then and Now (2025).

---