open sky :: SAMVAAD | 4th September
- Vandana Parashar
- Sep 4, 2022
- 1 min read
hosts: Sanjuktaa Asopa & Vandana Parashar
scenic drive
looking everywhere
for a pacifier
--- Rich Schilling
(Frogpond, Vol. 42.3, Fall 2019)
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4 Comments
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I can feel the frustration! 😄
The first two lines set the scene of an outing by car in a beautiful landscape. In line 3 we learn that the child in the back is unhappy, and no-one can appreciate the scenery until the pacifier is found. An effective touch of humour at the end.
Rich shares
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“Here are my memories of it:
Going on vacation is supposed to be fun and relaxing, but sometimes with kids it can be slightly challenging. My family had driven 9 or 10 hours to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee from Missouri. I believe we were driving up the mountain, and while I usually had a backup pacifier in my pocket, somehow it and all others were lost. My daughter was not happy. She didn't care about the mountain, the scenic view, or a full bag of popcorn that had spilled everywhere. She wanted the pacifier that we couldn't find. I'm sure it was my wife who found it once we had made it to the top of…
Beautiful. Personally, yes, it's ultimately the family within and outside!
Brilliant! I love this. While parents relate to this directly, the haiku captures the essence of how scenic drives go for agitated and restless people, or people who are worried too much. While try to soak in the views, they are also worried about a plethora of things and the mind holds then back from fully being present. I do that many times, so I can relate so well to this haiku in a way. Wonderful jux to capture this 'missing out on nature spectacles because of something mundane'.
Of course, the jux lends itself to applying this 'distracted away from doing so and so because of kids' to the larger scene of how drastically lives of people change when…