my car didn’t move
right in the first half second
after the light turned green,
so you honk.
my car then slows down,
as I get ready to turn
into a parking lot,
so you honk.
my blinker was on,
you knew that I was turning,
I was doing no wrong,
but you honk.
in heavy traffic,
I am hesitant to merge,
I’m more cautious than you,
so you honk.
a person crosses,
ambling across the crosswalk,
while I am stopped for him,
then you honk.
you didn’t see him,
and you feel there’s no reason
to ever slow or stop
so you honk.
if when changing lanes,
I am about to hit you,
and I just don’t see you,
then you honk.
honking means “danger,”
it does not mean to “speed up,”
so do not be surprised,
when you honk,
if I slow or stop
at the sound then of the blast
to avoid the danger
at your honk.
© Susan Joy Clark 2021
This was written for Colleen M. Chesebro’s Tanka Tuesday challenge. This week, she challenged us to invent a new form.
From her page:
- First, choose your favorite syllabic poetry form. Write your poem.
- Next, give your poem some different characteristics to make it something different. You can change the syllable count, rhyme scheme (add or get rid of it), anything you want to create a new form. Write this poem.
- Give your new syllabic poetry form a name.
This poem was halfway coming together in my head as I was driving and before I saw the specifics of this week’s challenge. So, I went about this backwards perhaps. I took my half-formed poem and made it fit some sort of syllabic format, and then tried to see how it fit the challenge. I’ll say this is a haiku, but the line count changed to four, and the syllable count changed to 5-7-6-3. The fourth line is a refrain or variations on a refrain. The stanzas in my new form can be repeated several times, so, in that sense, in length, it is similar to a renga or solo renga. Then again, like a tanka, this form can be on any topic, not necessarily nature. I’m calling it a hankenga. Ha ha! It really just worked out that way, without me even trying to be punny. By the way, the driving situation where someone honked because I stopped for someone in a crosswalk really did happen, just not in the past few days.