Pleased that my haibun Hoeing Grief appears in Cattails, April 2018!
Hoeing Grief
By Frank J. Tassone, USA
Dad places Robert on one part of our terrace garden and me, on the other. This way we can’t accidentally hurt each other. Robert rakes while I tear at the ground with a hoe. He finishes raking and begins to mallet tomato plant stakes in the tomato beds.
I pull on the hoe. The blade is stuck in some roots. I pull, pull and pull! The root gives. The hoe shoots up, free at last. My brother screams. He came up behind me without my knowing it. The iron loop used to hang the tool is jammed in his eye.
bloodstained soil
another long night in the
Emergency Room

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