Tanka challenge, 11/29/08.

[gurdymonkey]

Motes of sunlight tease
As they pierce the bamboo blinds.
"Come. Come out," they taunt.
The scrape of rake on gravel
And leaf smoke tell the true tale.

(Disclaimer: Who burns leaves in 2008? Especially in a county that levies fines for burning wood in one's fireplace on designated Spare The Air days?  That said, I am old enough to remember a time when leaf burning was the norm - and the image is far more period-appropriate than the equally evocative burnt dust smell my gas heater emits during the first burn of the season. Now get over your green self and chill, 'kay?)

Comments

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid we had an incinerator in the back yard.

[erink.livejournal.com]

Japanese burn leaves! And brush, and garbage. Every time we came near farm fields on our trip there was a little fire going in one corner. Maybe you're just channeling a Japanese spirit.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Hey! I got your post card about a week and a half ago.

[takadai-no-tora.livejournal.com]

erink wrote:
Japanese burn leaves! And brush, and garbage. Every time we came near farm fields on our trip there was a little fire going in one corner.

Also the stubble left in the rice fields after harvest. When I was on a bus trip outside of Kyoto, we saw lots of rice fields mid-burn. Actually, it's not a bad practice if you don't have air pollution issues as the burning gets rid of pests and breaks down the plant material to release the minerals back into the soil.

[neojupiter.livejournal.com]

We burn leaves ^_^ its fun to play with fire!!
.. everyone in the subdivision does it... but living in a subdivision in the middle of corn fields in the middle of Illinois makes a difference..