ㅁ Rosalie laid out the cards that she'd made; winter, outside, sculpted snow and conveyed endings to things that she hadn't yet schemed: Kiamon's name came to her as she dreamed.
– a quatrain in dactylic tetrameter. Rosalie is Kiamon’s great-great-grandmother, and Not-A-Wolf’s granddaughter.
ㅁ if i name each thing each particle in the world then i'll be finished
– a pseudo-haiku.
ㅁ Then I had a dream where I was in a prison off in Korea.
– a pseudo-haiku.
ㅁ the day lacked structure there was no morning, no night it was just pure fog
– a pseudo-haiku.
ㅁ I sought out some words. They failed to appear as hoped. So instead: these words.
– a pseudo-haiku.
ㅁ In the end it wasn't the weather that ended my treehouse sojourn, rather, my uncle's issues with his declining health suggested prudence and I decamped. The attic, again, home.
– a nonnet.
ㅁ Some said that they left no stone unturned, but that isn't how it happened. The search was desultory, and stones were left unturned. In fact the stones won: they kept secrets, bided time, waited, hid.
– a nonnet.
ㅁ Yesterday it rained. Not that uncommon round here, in the rainforest.
– a pseudo-haiku.
ㅁ this morning i'm in mourning that dead fish so yummy squish decaying then you yelled "no!" so boring
– an englyn penfyr.
ㅁ Communication works like this: I speak my thought out loud, then he decides what I have said within his mind's closed shroud.
– a quatrain in ballad meter.
ㅁ The two-by-fours fell, and they tried to bonk my head... bruised both hands badly.
– a pseudo-haiku.
ㅁ Kiamon dwelt in the house by the shore, built by her grandmother's mother, before; lately she'd taken to sitting alone, there by the trees on an outjutting stone.
– a quatrain in dactylic tetrameter.
ㅁ The windshield's long crack is mostly horizontal; it doesn't grow much.
– a pseudo-haiku.
ㅁ I've slept in my metal clad treehouse every night for three months now. But lately it's dark out there, and the nights grow colder. Uninsulated, with a screen door... I'll move out. Winter comes.
– a nonnet.
ㅁ i was baptized in barnacle blood as i scraped at the boat's bottom and used the pressure washer to blast off the black bits until at long last i decided that was enough so i stopped
– a nonnet.
ㅁ The dog was wishing she could run all up and down the road, but I restrained her with the leash... she huffed and bore the load.
– a quatrain in ballad meter.
ㅁ I went to get lumber in the rain. Fred's driveway was a vast mudhole. Wading ankle-deep in mud, I loaded the lumber sticking out the back of the Chevy and drove home... uphill, down.
– a nonnet.
ㅁ The dog found a discarded deer's foot lying in a ditch by the road. Bits of flesh clung to the joints. She was quite pleased with this. The bone was held high, triumphantly. She gnawed it, and pranced. Yum.
– a nonnet.
ㅁ Blink. Open. Look around. I see nothing. It's completely dark. Oh, the faintest light, there. That's waking up before dawn. So I turn on my little light, Put on some clothes, exit the treehouse.
– a reverse nonnet.
ㅁ Mostly in town, I don't see eagles. But high over the parking lot, a single-minded eagle swooped down from a treetop, sighting a nice snack, or just for show, in morning's drizzly mist.
– a nonnet.
ㅁ Dull. Quiet. Standing there. No one came in. I vacuumed the floor. Outside the town was dead. I had no framing to do. The store was quite unpopular. The whole day, we had five customers.
– a reverse nonnet.
ㅁ Kiamon counted the times she had tried, Each time as if she had somehow just died. Now here she was, trying once more, again, Still she compelled herself: think where she'd been.
– a quatrain in dactylic tetrameter.
ㅁ the equinox fled folding the nights into days like a coffee stain
– a pseudo-haiku.
ㅁ
perhaps I'm an oddity
{a/o}ccidental ajeossi*
this unlikely odyssey
– an englyn milwr, somewhat loose on the rhyme.
*NOTE: “ajeossi” (아저씨) is a very common Korean word. Formally, it’s a term of polite address used by a younger person for a man who is older. Such terms of address are ubiquitous in Korean, because there is a taboo on using the name of someone older than you in their presence – so you need a term of reference and address, instead. If you’re a child, all men in their 20’s and up are “ajeossi”. If you’re a man my age, then only men in my dad’s generation are “ajeossi” – it’s a relative term. It’s frequently translated as meaning “uncle”, but that’s not really accurate at all – there’s no implication of blood relation of any kind, but in Korean society, which is quite communitarian (such that the whole of society is, in one sense, one big family), there is some of that “uncle” semantics attached. In Korean popular culture, the word is used, too, as a kind of slang to represent “a stereotypical middle-aged man who lacks a sense of what’s currently trendy and is entitled and stuck in tradition”. Thus it actually overlaps with English slang terms like “boomer” – I’ve even heard it explained as a kind of male “karen” (in the slang sense). In Korean English, the word is almost always used untranslated, as it’s considered untranslatable. Among my friends in Korea, I was often jokingly referred to as “miguk ajeossi” (“miguk” = “American”) – both because I was older than the typical “American teaching in Korea” but also because in terms of behavior, I was perceived to be “more traditionally Korean than the Koreans”. Generally I decided that rather than be insulted, I’d take it as a compliment on my having gone sufficiently native.
ㅁ I awoke, restless. The night loitered, damp and dark. And then I went out.
– a pseudo-haiku.
ㅁ the rain bonked the roof all night, but sleep's disruption was slight; I slept in, till morning's light.
– an englyn milwr.
ㅁ The dreamspace filled with angles, adrift in air, like seagulls, but math was all illegal.
– an englyn milwr.
ㅁ It was a heat map, showing where the cells died first... better known as "leaf".
– a pseudo-haiku.
ㅁ Some stories are told alone, you can hear, with mouth for ear, with soft tone, self-whispering, on your own.
– an englyn penfyr.
ㅁ The moon was up there smiling, among stars, and maybe mars, above things, things like the trees, all growing.
– an englyn penfyr.
ㅁ some days I go through motions exist without intentions make up other worlds' oceans
– an englyn milwr.
ㅁ then some stars appeared with the day's leftover clouds and the night had come
– a pseudo-haiku.
ㅁ years of wasted life replete with many failures appeared in my dream
– a pseudo-haiku.