Monday, September 30, 2019

Kafka Sunrise




image from pinterest.com


Kafka Sunrise

“I cannot make anyone understand what is 
happening inside me.”--Franz Kafka.

One morning, years ago, I awoke to an odd
clicking noise. As I localized the sound, I
realized that it was more of a crazed crunching,
and that it was coming from my left ear. I
panicked a bit--did I have a punctured ear drum?
Then the noise stopped. I had my wife look at
my ear. She found nothing. 

The crunching sound would come and go. 
Sometimes it would get very loud, then subside. 
It became surreal, like a Kafka daydream. I 
imagined a tick or a spider burrowing in my cheek.

That night, I couldn’t sleep. The noise became 
maddening. Then suddenly it began to itch. I
turned the lamp on just in time to greet an ant
emerging out of the quagmire of ear wax. It
dropped into my hand. I took it outside and
released it. It had earned its freedom.

Last June, beneath deck stairs,
hundreds of tiny black spider’s
eggs hatched babies.



Glenn Buttkus

Haibun

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub

14 comments:

brudberg said...

Oh... now I do not dare to sleep... to have an insect in your ear is what build my nightmares... I really admire your compassion with the insect.

Kim M. Russell said...

I love the title, Glenn, and the way you dived right into the sounds, the onomatopoeic clicking and crazed crunching, but what a thing to happen inside your ear! Very Kafkaesque. I’m glad it wasn’t damaged, and you set it free.

sarah said...

Ugh, heebie-jeebies! When I worked in Accident and Emergency, I was told stories of insects being trapped in ears - drowning them in olive oil works, apparently. Great story, though.

Jade Li said...

I love the end of your last paragraph, that the ant had earned its release from what could have been its catacomb. You have to admire an insect that found its way out of the waxy labyrinth. The haiku at the end is darned creepy!

Linda Lee Lyberg said...

Dear God- this is the stuff of nightmares! I vaguely recall an old Night Gallery about a man having an earwig in his ear that freaked me out. UGH.

joem18b said...

we do depend on spiders in our house to control the other bugs. so far they haven't gone crazy with that.

enjoyed your haibun!

tonispencer said...

LOL. A friend of mine had a roach in his ear a few years ago and it was brought out in pieces. I am glad you were compassionate to the ant.

Dwight L. Roth said...

That would really give me the creeps! Probably thought he was in a time warp in all that wax!
Great Haibun!

robkistner said...

Oh gawd dude, yuk — I’d sleep with earplugs if that ever happened to me. My skin is crawling right now...

Sascha Darlington said...

Love the ending and your haiku.

lynn__ said...

I've had a spider or two crawl on me at night but a bug crunching in your ear? Freaky! Another reason to sleep with earplugs...great haibun and nod to Kafka.

Revived Writer said...

Oh, wow, that's creepy. Thanks for sharing the haibun, though!

Misky said...

Wow! How incredible is that?!

purplepeninportland.com said...

Wow! I don't think I would have been as calm as you.