Poetry, Theme Prompt, Writing Prompts, Zuihitsi

Simple Interruptions

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for dVerse MTB: Zuihitsi – Following the Brush.
Our host, Merril, invites us to write a Japanese hybrid
form of poetry. This 10th century poem style is new to
dVerse; this is my first attempt at writing Zuihitsu .

Image by Me & Copliot

Tuesday. The radiator ticks. Someone on the street below is arguing with a parking meter, or maybe it’s a phone …. hard to tell anymore which debates are with machines and which are with people.

I’m trying to make a grocery list.

Milk. The good kind, from the farm in Millerton that puts the cows’ names on the label. Last week it was Cynthia. I don’t know why I remember that.

I know I’ll often stop and think about them.

Eggs. Bread. That particular mustard my cousin introduced me to in a kitchen that smelled like fresh paint and burnt toast …. much like this kitchen, right now. Smell is the great sneak attack. You think you’re standing in your own life and then: 1986. A Tuesday, maybe. Also a grocery list, probably.

The parking meter argument has resolved itself, or moved on.

I write down: lemons. I don’t need lemons. But someone, somewhere in my past, always needed lemons …. kept a bowl of them on the counter just for the color, the smell, the readiness of them.

I cross out lemons.

Here’s what I’ve learned about the mind: it’s not a filing cabinet. It’s more like a city …. districts you visit often, streets you stumble onto after decades and recognize by the angle of the light …. or the smell. The things you didn’t know you remembered.

Milk. Eggs. Bread. Mustard.

Lemons.

NAR©2026

Nancy’s Notes: Zuihitsu is a Japanese hybrid form of poetry from the 10th century that incorporates nonfiction, musings and confessions, poetry, and miscellany to create a spontaneous, layered text.

This is “In My Life” by The Beatles

MTB: Zuihitsu

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.

39 thoughts on “Simple Interruptions”

  2. Great share. I love this part: Here’s what I’ve learned about the mind: it’s not a filing cabinet. It’s more like a city …. districts you visit often, streets you stumble onto after decades and recognize by the angle of the light …. or the smell. The things you didn’t know you remembered.

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    1. Lemons are in my kitchen all the time and are used in everything from iced tea to grilled salmon to espresso. They are even good for removing food smells from your hands during food prep. Here’s a piece of trivia for you: the bishop at Roman Catholic confirmations uses oil to make the sign of the cross on the foreheads of the confirmandi. To remove the oil from his fingers, he uses a piece of lemon.

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  5. Well done, definitely enjoyed floating along with your stream of consciousness….I get the lemon squeeze concentrates these daze, but leave them off my list intentionally…and then make a gut decision IF I see them lol….great flow and enjoyable!

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    1. Thanks so much for a very entertaining and lovely comment! I had to laugh at one point; it looks like you may be dictating (which is what I do) and the word “days” was written as “daze” …. perhaps appropriate in these times! 😆

      I find we can never have too many lemons, unless they’re cars; in that case, you don’t want any! Have a lovely weekend! 🍋

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  12. I’m not certain about this form, but you seem to be! So well done.

    “Smell is the great sneak attack. You think you’re standing in your own life and then: 1986. A Tuesday, maybe. Also a grocery list, probably.”

    And now I’m thinking about lemons. . .

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    1. I found this form to be mystifying. I read some of the other submissions and a lot of different zuihitsu poems online and imitated the form. It’s really reflective, non-fiction prose, isn’t it? I enjoyed it; it’s always fun to learn something new, whether it works or not. I’m very happy to know you enjoyed it too. Thanks, Merril.

      Go get some lemons; you never know when you might need them. 🍋

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