missing girl 

a proper burial 

for a yellow tulip bulb 

lost in summer 

recovered in spring, her body 

(RIP Linda Stoltzfoos, yellow was her favorite color) 

This is a current event tanka. My heart goes out to the Amish parents and family of a kidnapped girl in our area. Today they are doing an autopsy on a discovered body. Linda Stoltzfoos was eighteen-years-old, taken near her house walking home from church. She was raped and killed last summer. After ten months, police have found her body. I pray Linda’s family and community can find closure to their terrible grief. 

For me, there’s a cosmic justice to all the flowers blooming outside now. Yellow is a dominant flower color—daffodils, pine forest pollen dust, forsythia. And all the yellow tulips. Linda loved yellow, she wore bright yellow blouses with her black and white dress and apron. The spring’s yellow flowers grow out of brown bare winter soil. Spring brings rebirth, the flowers remember Linda. 

Ingrid Bruck

http://haikuhut.com/FailedHaikuIssue65.pdf

Date Published: May 1, 2021