—The young woman in the photograph above is the poet, wearing a favorite jacket in days gone by. This image (an example of what Beary calls “photo-ku”) is reproduced here with her permission.

i was just a kid in those days and he was one of the bad boys the nuns warn you about and my old man told me stay far away from that one but i couldn’t help myself and when i saw him he was walking up to me with his marlboros tucked under his tee-shirt like marlon brando with those biceps and his hair smelled of his last smoke and he kissed me one of those long kisses that just ooze out of you and shake up your insides at the same time but what did i know back then not enough which is why he’ll always be the one that got away

last call
a ceiling fan stirs
the tip jar

—Text of haibun previously appears in Bashō’s Road (August 2011); republished here by author’s permission

Roberta Beary

is the haibun editor of Modern Haiku. Her haibun “Genetics” (Rattle No. 47) was nominated for a 2016 Pushcart Prize. Her collection The Unworn Necklace, a finalist in the Poetry Society of America’s annual book awards, is in its fourth printing. Her most recent book, Deflection, is a collection of haibun. Award-winning poet and playwright Grace Cavalieri said, “In Deflection she extends her reach with some of the most searingly truthful work I’ve seen this year.”

Follow Roberta Beary on twitter [at] shortpoemz where she tweets her photoku.

www.robertabeary.com

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⚡ Editor’s Note in Bashō’s Road (August 2011), which includes commentary on “barfly” by poet, writer, and educator Terry Ann Carter from her book, Lighting the Global Lantern: A Teacher’s Guide to Writing Haiku and Related Literary Forms