Pamelyn Casto
That Cold Autumn Morning
(after Murakami Kijō)
I felt the trembling unease for the first
time one morning in cold autumn
when waking up didn't behave—as morning
took on a greyness, a stiffness in the
new day that dawned and my old mirror
dimmed and clouded over to hide the I
who was here yesterday, and I stare
at the new wrinkles that turn into
painful realizations, into side-shows
which reveal the wave of the coming of my
shorter future, of my dotage— my father's
gift he didn't intend to bestow to my face.
Bio
Pamelyn Casto's work has appeared in Modern Haiku, Gargoyle, OPEN: Journal of Arts and Letters, Dog Throat Journal, Writer's Digest, and many other places. Her book Flash Fiction: Alive in the Flicker, A Portable Workshop includes a history of flash literature, craft essays, markets, a marketing strategy, exercises, prompts, and more. See it here: https://tinyurl.com/y752tfdr