Open Meeting
Haibun
Standing room only in the community room of a local church on a Friday night. A blonde in knee-high riding boots checks Facebook. The co-chair runs the business portion of the Open AA meeting. A smiling giant invites us to fill the last two chairs — in the first row.
The guest speaker takes the podium.
He wears a white, bushy mustache that hangs inches off his face. His eyes shine with a serenity I’ve seen on too few. He shares his story, which inspired me in two ways.
First, he defines resentment as a “re-experiencing of that which hurts us.” I understand that all too well. Second, the depth in which he needed to make his fourth step — a “fearless and searching moral inventory.”
He had to look at his past, but he had to do his third step — “make a decision to turn our will and life over to the care of God as we understand him” — before he did.
I need to do the same — and in the same order.
shifting in their chairs
walking through cigarette smoke
on our way out
more by FRANK J. TASSONE
photograph by Jacob Owens
first published in Image Curve, February 9, 2017
UPDATE! for dVerse Poets Haibun Monday: Faith. Pubtended by Mish
Frank J. Tassone 
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