A New and Collaborative Haiku

Small Talk

Small talk is the toad

You kiss on your way to find

New friends, warts and all.

Kim Blittle and I became friends after we bonded over our dislike of small talk. Our conversation set me thinking. What’s the purpose of small talk? We’re all looking for something from other people. When I was younger it was a way to meet guys. Like the princess who kissed frogs to find the one who would turn into a prince. So, I started a poem that turned into a haiku.

I had the main idea but lacked three syllables at the end.  I told Kim what I was thinking and read her the poem, and she said, “I hope the toad doesn’t have warts.” That gave me my ending. And it’s appropriate. The writer Doris Betts says she is a Presbyterian, “warts and all.” And who among us doesn’t have warts of one kind or another?