delena haiku

yet one more reason i love where i'm working now, despite the KKK Pep Rally Drama going on at the moment: the women there appreciate my quirky delena fun. i'd told one of the girls there, *sa*, that for years now writing haiku has been a closet passion of mine. so then she wanted me to share a few. so i wrote an ode to *sa* in which i called her "my sexy, mean, strap-on queen" and she loved it.

so every once in a while she'll write one herself, or prompt me to write one. her latest game is the Haiku Challenge, which is terrific fun: she thinks up three random words, the randomest most out-there words she can think of, and has me use them in a haiku. there are only two rules to the Haiku Challenge, and they are 1.) all three words must be used, and 2.) the haiku must make sense. of course, i can Challenge her right back. we have loads of fun with this one.

the other day, she calls to me from across the salon, "hey, delena! i got one for you!" she hands me a piece of paper upon which she has written rooster, gargoyle, and pancake. so i set it aside and continue grooming my dog, the gears in my brain already working. once in a while i'll stop clipping to scratch a few things on the paper, and before i'm even done with the haircut, i've got one:

An Ode to my *sa*
pride of the rooster,
heart of the gargoyle sentry,
sweetness of pancake.

she loved it. of course, she kept saying that the last line should've been "breasts flat as pancake," so i had to tell her that the thought crossed my mind. get a bunch of women together and they'll joke about things like that.

but i think my biggest pride was this morning. after being awakened far too early on my day off by a text message from *rj*, head thick from not enough sleep and thoughts quite sluggish, i got another text from *sa*.

"wasp, snorkel, toast," was all it said.

hmm. another Challenge. and dammit, this one was difficult. after ten minutes, i considered telling her i gave up.

ten more minutes later i text back:

Summer Fun
sunning toast-white legs
after snorkel fun at sea,
got stung by sand wasp.

she texts back: "U rock SO hard! ur the official master."

pretty dang good for too early in the morning...