Looking at Bad Mothers

Disapproving gaze
Angry clouds and lashing wind
Whips me with cold rain
Leaves me in the freezing dark
Shuts out Spring as punishment

Mother Nature is not a very kind or gentle parent. She doesn’t have much if any sympathy. If she were a person, she’d be that mother that would lock her kids out of the house and not let them back in until it got dark. She would be that parent who when you had a skinned knee would jerk you to your feet and scream at you for being clumsy. This week she has been flat out abusive! We had temperatures in the single digits with wind chills in the negative double digits – and I’m not saying a balmy -10ºF. No, no, no. I’m talking about a brutal -25ºF where it hurts to take a deep breath. This week so far has been the kind of punishing weather when a brisk trot from the parking lot takes only 7 minutes but by the time you can see the door your hands are numb, your nose is so cold it hurts, and you can’t feel your toes.  Tuesday we had freezing rain that coated the world in a thick layer of ice. Sparky was sent home from his library job and the university cancelled the evening classes. It took me double the time to drive home but on the bright side I didn’t end up in a ditch or in any fender benders (like so many others along the way)! I’m wondering if it is possible to be emancipated from Mother Nature’s parental control. I can’t take much more of her punishments and abuse. Is there a CPS case worker following up on her antics? Has anyone else reported her as a bad mother?!

The above poem is a Tanka – a Japanese form that incorporates a haiku (5-7-5 syllable count per the English system) with a waka (2 lines of 7 syllables each) creating a stanza of 5-7-5-7-7. This is akin to the Renga, a collaborative Japanese poem where different people take turns writing 5-7-5 and 7-7 repeating until the desired length is achieved. Generally 3 people is the minimum number of collaborators and 20 is the maximum but it can be done as a solo project…