I thought it might be of interest to post a revision of this haibun.

Ray

Hell Hath No Fury

2 a.m. A crash and scream jolt me awake. I rush downstairs to find my daughter smashing her live-in boyfriend's TV set with a hammer. While I'm trying to figure out what led to this, she starts shattering his DVDs.

"You want to know why?" she screams. "I work and pay for the groceries, and he buys new clothes and DVDs." She grabs scissors and starts shredding his shirts. Next she pulls out a hacksaw and saws the toes off of his new shoes.

"I gave and gave and gave," she says, beginning to cry while hauling his belongings out the front door and dumping them on the lawn. She spews out a litany of complaints: he didn't do his share of the housework; he didn't pay his share of the bills; he wasn't motivated to get unstuck from his dead-end job; he had started smoking and doing drugs again; he was sulky and wouldn't talk to her; he never wanted to do anything.

Finally, she winds down and sits, sobbing: "I found out that he's been cheating on me for two years."

How does the man who cheated on her mother help her through this?

evening rain
missing especially
the small black kitten

Hell Hath No ... Hedgehogs, draft 1

Recently I've had move out two cats, one hedgehog, 4 mice, two large tanks of fish, and one boy-man.  That leaves 3 cats, one dog, 3 guinea pigs, two girl-women, one boy-man and me. Oh yeah, and a bunch of mosquitoes waiting to get in the door. 

The precipitating event was a boy-man being found out cheating on one of the girl-women. I was made aware of this at 2 a.m. by the sounds of screaming and things breaking. When I got down to the basement, thinking that I might have to rescue a daughter from a break-and-enter thug, I find her smashing her boy-man's TV set with a hammer. Smash! Smash! Smash! Next, each stroke of the hammer shatters a DVD. Crack! Crack! Crack! As I try to talk to her, she fetches up a large pair of scissors and goes at his new clothing ... cutting shirts, pants, sox into shreds.  Snip! Snip! Snip! "I work and pay for the groceries and he buys new clothes and DVDs and says he doesn't have enough money for the groceries" she screams. Then she pulls out a hacksaw [when did she come by such a good toolkit?] and saws the toes off of his new shoes.  "I gave and gave and gave," she screams to the soft sound of leather being sawed through.

I hug her to me, say, "I know that you're hurting, that you have a right to be angry, but this is no way to end a relationship."

She breaks away and starts hauling stuff out the front door and dumping it on the lawn.

"Stop," I beg. "I'm the one who's going to have to clean this up. You're punishing me, not him!"

Finally she winds down, sits, sobbing. She has a litany of complaints about this three year relationship. He didn't do his share of the housework, he didn't pay his share of the bills, he wasn't motivated to get unstuck from his dead-end job, he had started smoking and doing drugs again, he was sulky and wouldn't talk to her, he never wanted to do anything.

How does the man who cheated on her mother help her through this? 

evening rain
missing especially
the small black kitten

Comments

[aurora]

Welcome aboard, Ray! Good to see more haibun here. :)

[Yu Chang]

Glad to see you here, Ray.
Enjoyed your haibun.