No doubt this would be a good walk for a day into town. The first thing I did was pee in the bidet. That was because I stepped on my glasses getting out of bed. I noticed my left foot was bleeding. That was probably from a shard from the coffee mug I dropped on the kitchen floor. I need to check the expiration dates on the milk more often. As I was bandaging my foot with paper towels and duct tape, I toppled over and struck my head on the edge of the coffee table. Just above the right eye. There was blood everywhere but at least the roll of paper towels was at hand. Without warning, while I was dabbing the wound, I remembered the Spanish word for baby scallops—zamburiñas, or something that sounds like that. I’m not sure memories even exist unless you remember them. It’s like a conjuring trick. Scallops must be proof of something.

Bob Lucky

is a regular contributor to haiku and tanka journals in the US, Europe, and Australia, and his work has been widely anthologized. His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous international journals, including Flash, Rattle, Modern Haiku, KYSO Flash, The Prose-Poem Project, The Boston Literary Magazine, Haibun Today, and Contemporary Haibun Online (where he edits content).

His chapbook of haibun, tanka prose, and prose poems, entitled Ethiopian Time (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014), was an honorable mention in the Touchstone Book Awards. In February 2018, his haibun story Gratitude (nominated by KYSO Flash) was named Runner-Up for Vestal Review’s VERA Award.

Lucky now lives and works in Saudi Arabia.