Welcome to the November 2016 issue of brass bell: a haiku journal.
This month's theme is: Family.
Contributors are from: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, England, Ghana, India, Ireland, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Turkey, the U.K., and the United States
banana moon
my son asks me
the way to it
- Adjei Agyei-Baah
like father before
sitting outside
fogbathing
- Alan Bern
praying mantis
resting on the cake —
family raise an argument
- Amauri Solon
thanksgiving picnic a family of fire ants joins us
- Angelee Deodhar
lying side by side
soft intake of breath, then out —
i could strangle him*
- Barbara Mink
warning signs
hidden in plain sight
grandpa's keys
- Barbara Tate
hot air
dad tells his stories
again
- Barbara Tate
Father's Day
my daughter confirms
my Facebook friend request
- Billy Antonio
sibling rivalry
my brother takes a selfie
with the latest iPhone
- Billy Antonio
four generations living
the youngest nine days old
the eldest ninety-one
- Bre
daughter stops
to help a snail
cross the road
- Caroline Skanne
grandmother
on her old red bike
with the comfortable seat
- Caroline Skanne
dreamcatcher . . .
with both hands my baby grasps
the spring sunlight
- Chen-ou Liu
one year gone
on her side of the bed
winter moonlight
- Chen-ou Liu
sit down christina
the only thing my grandmother
can say in english
- Christina Martin
always first
my brother running off the pier
life jacket
- Christina Martin
dad's frail shoulders
that once carried me
arctic mountain
- Christina Sng
sunday best
mother's sharp perfume
stings my nostrils
- Christina Sng
Aqua Velva . . .
watching dad shave
in the mornings
- Claire Vogel Camargo
she takes his hand
picking eggs
with grandma
- Dan Schwerin
my tiny nephew
already fluent
in dinosaur
David J Kelly
grandma's chocolates
locked in her drawer
now expired
- Debbi Antebi
second servings
I criticize my mom
for criticizing me
- Debbi Antebi
we hover around our mother hummingbirds
- Debbie Strange
tangled fish line
my sons tug
their grandfather
- Deborah P Kolodji
Canada geese
my mother doesn't renew
her driver's license
- Deborah P Kolodji
ivory smile
with one gold tooth
nine grandchildren
- Dottie Piet
bitter cold
my late brother's scent
in his own bedroom
- Emmanuel Jessie Kalusian
both of them with white hair
mother and son —
which is old, which is young?
- Frank Robinson
leaving school
hiding from chaos theory
our younger son
- Goran Gatalica
throwing down the lettuce
Big Sister calls me
slug girl!
- Helen Buckingham
the cousins i never hear from black ice
- Jennifer Hambrick
golden leaves
the pocket watch
of the grandfather I never met
- Jennifer Hambrick
trembling lilacs
this Mother's Day —
the weight of bees
- Jo Balistreri
snow
softly ends
dad's slowing breath
- Jo Balistreri
rain
on the window
mother's tears
- Joanna M. Weston
my son plays
the violin —
screech owls
- Joanna M. Weston
fashion twist
I share hair elastics
with my son
-kjmunro
she taught me
to draw birds
my little daughter
- Kath Abela Wilson
once a day
he makes me laugh hard
our wedding vows
- Kath Abela Wilson
early morning sun
reveals in motel mirror
my grandmother's face
- Katya Sabaroff Taylor
I call mom
my brother gets the credit
dementia
- Lance Robertson
hairy caterpillar
crawling in milkweed dew
father's mustache
- Laughing waters
her mother's pearls
around my daughter's neck
lie warm
- Madhuri Pillai
the jungle book —
my grandson removes his clothes
in the cinema
- Marta Chocilowska
thin ice —
her comment about her
mother-in-law
- Martha Magenta
waning gibbous
grandmother smaller than
she used to be
- Martha Magenta
almost 10
thinking about death
daddy buried in his cowboy boots
- Marty Blue Waters
my older sister and I
dance a hobbled two-step —
the bar crowd cheers
- Marty Blue Waters
reading aloud
the scent of her head
so close to me
- Mary Hohlman
moon flowers —
my son shows me
how they unfurl
- Mary Kendall
losing my mother
is somehow more difficult
than finding her was
- Mimi Foyle
picture postcards
my father's greetings
on the fridge
- Nina Kovacic (translated by Durda Vukelic Rozic)
grandma's birthday
she asks why
people are singing
- Pat Davis
only child . . .
i dream of the sister
that might have been
Pat Geyer
august birthday . . .
my father a leo
always lionhearted
- Pat Geyer
cloud watching
I find
my father's face
- Phyllis Lee
first snow
the roses still bloom . . .
grandma's wallpaper
- Phyllis Lee
nightingale call . . .
mother rises at midnight
to sit with him
- Pris Campbell
my aunt's birthday —
dinner runs headless
out back
- Pris Campbell
drifting smoke
the pipe cleaner men
my uncle once made
- Rachel Sutcliffe
visiting grandma
the relentless chatter
of the budgie
- Rachel Sutcliffe
polaroid of woman in a two-piece before she was my mother
- Ron Scully
old sewing machine
Barbie gains a sexy dress
from grandma
- Rosa Clement
in my hand
under the hospice blanket
his cool fingers
- Ruth Yarrow
you loved being slim
Mom, the box of your ashes
so heavy
- Ruth Yarrow
talking of Saturn
my daughter shows us
the hula hoop
- Simon Hanson
new generation
my son asks me
to put the fish back
- Simon Hanson
family reunion
i tried in my way
to be me
- Sondra J. Byrnes
tea time
with the aunties —
mahjong clatter
- Theresa A. Cancro
longed for child
I never did say
thank you
- Tim Gardiner
fallen leaves . . .
a fresh quilt
for mother
- Tom Clausen
when my wife asks
what I did today . . .
look at autumn trees
- Tom Clausen
mother's birthday
a friday the thirteenth
104 years ago
- Tricia Knoll
family talk
phone line and a white lie
connect us
- Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
water painting
just enough colour to
remember mother's flower
- Vibeke Laier
wild roses
the memories i share
with my sister
- Vibeke Laier
the Beatles —
I screamed once
my father slapped my face
- Yvonne Fisher
in daddy's fedora
and her own pink tutu —
sister's sixth birthday
- Zee Zahava
pinning a dandelion to her lapel
she calls this gardening —
my dear mother
- Zee Zahava
===
* Barbara Mink — lying side by side — "Exposure to a trigger sound elicits an immediate negative emotional response in people who have the condition called Misophonia."
