Five O'Clock Chimes

(Leaf 117) – Reflections

Every day in Japan you’ll often hear at set of chimes ringing out at 5pm. The tunes vary from place to place, but ‘Auld Lang Syne’ is quite common. Where we live in Tokyo, our local tannoy – which is quite close to our house – plays a few bars of Dvořák. And it is always acknowledged by an unseen four-footed neighbour …

 

 

Five o’clock chimes –

somewhere a Jack Russell

barks back a challenge.

  

 

Editorial Note: my wife thinks our local four-footed friend (whom we only ever hear) is actually a Shiba Inu, like Hachikō at Shibuya Station, but to my mind and ear a Jack Russell seems more apt for this senryu.

This poem was originally written and posted on Bluesky in response to a #haikufeels prompt: challenge.

Photograph credit: Collsam Inc.