Short Sweet Life

Featured image: Big Moon Hug by Jerry Kirk

Short Sweet Life

The little girls are angels now. But first they had to dive into the water, swim down the river, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly stroke. The current carried them, they floated, heads above the black water. Arms quit moving, legs stopped kicking until their tiny hearts quit beating. Blue lips whispered here I am.

Tiny little girls
held hands floated down river
white wings flew away

Blue and green and brown eyes closed but not until they saw all the angels reach down and scoop them up out of the raging river, attach whispy wings to twenty seven little bodies who then flew up beside their guardians to paradise. No more icy black water, no more fear, no more swirling waves to carry them under.

Best friends and sisters
said goodbye called out love you
went home to Jesus

One by one pink shirts and mud-covered teddy bears washed up on the river bank. Pillows blankets quilts backpacks pajamas flip-flops purple red and blue beach towels bathing suits plastic bottles of lemonade glittery silver headbands floppy hats to protect them from the sun. The holiday is over, camp is closed.

Sweet precious babies
one by one searchers found you
angels gone back home

Kay Castaneda

TankaTuesday Challenges

Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge #23, 7/29/25: Metaphors

Robbie Cheadle is this week’s host. She challenges everyone to write a syllabic poem using at least one metaphor. My poem is a Haibun, in a Prose Envelope style.

*** This poem is in honor of the people who died in the historic Guadalupe River flood at Kerrville, Texas on July 4, 2025. I wrote this especially about the twenty seven girls staying at Camp Mystic, a Christian camp for girls. The cabin that held the youngest girls ages 6-8 years old and their counselor, was built closest to the river. Their cabin washed away during the night as did the other cabins of older girls. Some girls were in cabins on higher ground.

The flash flood killed nearly 200 people in Texas Hill Country. A chart shows the river’s height every five minutes. From 3 a.m. local time to 4:30 a.m., it rose about 20 feet, quickly rising as high as almost 40 feet as the night wore on. Flood stage for the Guadalupe River at Kerrville is 9 feet. It took several weeks to locate all the bodies. I think three people are still missing. Some victims were camping in a nearby park and their trailers, tents, RVs and cabins were washed away. Some people drowned when they mistakenly drove into the river in the dark. The camp owner died as he tried to rescue several campers. Entire families died as did several people who lived nearby. A farmer found some bodies on his land about twenty miles from the camp. Good news was that many people survived.

The tragedy affected me deeply. I keep thinking about the parents who received a letter from their daughter several days after the flood. She had written to say how much fun she was having and meeting new friends. She was one of those who never returned home.

Comments (9)

This is beautiful Kay a fitting tribute to those who lost their lives x

Oh Kay, this is so very poignant. 🧚‍♀️🩵🙏

I wasn’t familiar with a Haibun poem in a Prose Envelope style. It’s done well. Your attention to details describing such a horrific event conveyed the emotionality of it all. You did what Chinese Song Dynasty poet and scholar Wei T’ai (5th Century BC) who taught how to convey emotion without spelling it out. He wrote:

“Poetry presents the thing in order to convey the feeling. It should be precise about the thing and reticent about the feeling, for as soon as the mind responds and connects with the thing the feeling shows in the words; this is how poetry enters deeply into us.”

Thank you!

That was such a tragedy, this is such a beautiful poem to remember them.

Thanks Robbie, I got the idea to write about the tragedy when I read your explanation about metaphor. It took me a little longer to write than I usually do. 😮‍💨

Thanks, Carol. There are so many disasters in the world! 😪

Thank you Ken. I’ve been participating in Tanka Tuesday Writing Challenge for about a year. This week’s challenge was to write any type of syllabic poem using a metaphor. I enjoy writing in this more discìplined method. I chose the Haibun in Prose Envelope style because I wanted to write a longer poem about the people who died in the flood.