I own nothing.

Courage, logic, smiles, laughter, anger, rage, calm, quiet

Leonardo lifted his pen and stared at the page in the journal. Wow there are already a lot of words here. How can I include them all into a piece with just seventeen syllables?

Leonardo glanced up at April doing her kata. He remembered something else he'd been working on in his mind while sparring. He put pen to page and began to write down what he'd started then.

Passions flair, limbs fly

Weapons meet in clacks and clangs

Sparring refines us

Writing that put him in mind of all his brothers again. Sometimes in the blur of the speed of their shared activities, whether sparring or skateboarding, he could only tell his brothers apart by their colors. Hmmmm …

Blue, red, purple, orange … He jiggled the pen. Then he put it to paper again.

Le-o = 2

Raph = 1

Don-nie = 2

Don = 1

Mikey= 2

Mike?

Leo stopped. Come to think of it, we never really call him "Mike" with one syllable. He's just always been Mike-y. He wrote down their four colors, counting their syllables, next. Blue = 1, Red= 1, Purple= 2, Or-a-nge =

Leo silently mouthed the word. Then he frowned, and wrote "Or-an-ge = 3." Okay, we have promise here.

He began to work again not watching April's instruction from Master Splinter as much as he'd thought he would. He was engrossed in his writing. Neither teacher nor pupil really noticed either as a wide-eyed April carefully listened to the rat and gazed at him as he gently tweaked the position of her arms and hands. As this happened, Leo continued to write.

Raph is red, Leo is blue … No, I'm not going down that road …

He almost wished he hadn't let Donnie talk him into using a pen not a pencil.

"I like being able to erase my mistakes, Don!"

Donnie answered pointing his bo staff at him, "And you lose what could have been fodder for another project …"

He had sighed and taken the special pen, Donnie had asked April to buy for him. His brother really was being very helpful, and bossy. Leo smiled again and wrote. "Donnie, purple, bossy" Six syllables, how about "Don?"

"Don, purple, bossy" Not really a sentence or a thought, though …

"Don bosses a lot." Hey!

"Don bosses a lot

Hands me a pen" Okay, too few syllables.

"Don bosses a lot

He tells me how to write haiku …"

Is there one, or two, or three syllables in "tells?" Teeellllssss … Two to be safe or should I just grey area it? Eh, I'll say two for now and grey area it if I get desperate.

He=One, Tells=two, Me= one Four all together, how=one, to=one, write=1, haiku=two

1+2+1+1+1+1+2= 9 (sigh)

"Don bosses a lot"

Leave out "he" the awkwardness can be part of the form …

Tells me how to write haiku. No, eight, unless I count "tells" as one. Let's see what else I can do before going there.

Leave out "me."

"Tells how to write haiku …" There!

Don bosses a lot

Tells how to write haiku

Hands me a pen

And if I count Tells and Hands as two each, I'm done. And … I just wrote another haiku all about one brother again instead of writing one for all four of us as I set out to do. Okay, back to that. I am going to get this done!

"Blue, red, purple, orange," all together 7 syllables

Okay, our names, Leo, Raph, Donnie, Mikey. Huh. The syllables of all our nicknames together make seven too, but I can't have "two" lines of seven in one poem. This isn't going to work. How can I split this up?

Mikey wears orange= 2+2+3=7

Don wears purple= 1+2+2= 5

Raph wears red= 4

Leo wears blue= 4

Okay, what can I do with this?

Leo tried several, different things. In the end, he left out their names in an attempt to show the visuals that made them unique while unifying them all into one haiku. After all, this was about his observations of his surroundings. The Ancient One knew their names anyway.

Blue, red, purple, and

Orange is for the youngest

Brothers four colors

Suddenly, he heard a thump and looked up. His eyebrow ridges went up. April had landed on her back, after being thrown. With true, ninja spirit, though, she got right back up and charged Splinter. Fire was in her green eyes. Her red hair was streaming out behind her, seeming to have come loose, maybe in the fall, from her usual bun. Leo began to write again.

"Red hair whips around"

He looked back up. April tried something. His father's wide, intent eyes watched April's movements from beneath his bushy eyebrows. The ninjutsu teacher dodged her attempt to strike him without blinking those same eyes. He was just focused on watching her. Then he shook his head. "No, no …"

He began to correct her form again while talking in his scratchy voice. Leo wrote again some ways underneath the last line he'd written.

"With an intent stare

A scratchy voice," He paused a moment thinking and then wrote at the end of the last line. "Advises." That works.

Leo looked up, for a moment. He saw April listening to Splinter with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth. Then she nodded.

Leo chuckled to himself thinking of all the times he'd felt the feelings showing on April's face as he listened to Splinter's advice. Then, he bent his head over his journal again, and wrote, "Father knows a lot …"

. . .

Usagi sparred again with Tomoe Ame who jumped and leaned back before shaking her head staring at him with wide eyes. "Your ways of doing things, Usagi, your style, your education, they are both strange. I am amazed you adhere so strictly to the Samurai code!"

Usagi laughed, taking more of a playful swipe than anything else at Tomoe Ame letting her catch her breath as he replied. "My teacher taught me the same way many others did, Tomoe. He taught me tea, and chores, and manners like good teachers do."

She shook her head. "I just cannot get over it. Gen's style is so very normal, even if it does count greatly on his size, height, and strength. Yet, he is nothing like a normal Samurai."

Usagi frowned as he crouched readying himself for yet another attack rather than launching one at that moment even though he spoke a rebuttal. "He is loyal, Tomoe Ame Sama. And for all his love of money, Gen is no thief!"

Tomoe Ame nodded with a slight smile. "I know." She launched a careful attack at Usagi. Once again, his unique style found a weakness and took advantage of it in a strange way. Tomoe shook her head again. "This is why I never grow tired of our spars."

Usagi grinned. "Neither do I grow tired of them Tomoe Ame ..."

The Necko Samurai smiled and attacked again. "Does it have anything to do with being your sensei's only student at the time, do you think? How good you are?"

Usagi's ears went up. His eyes grew thoughtful, though his movements speed and accuracy seemed not at all affected by his pondering her question. "I'm not sure. I also did a lot of household chores with little help beyond sensei's instructions during that time."

Tomoe grinned. "So, your endurance was built up?"

He grinned back at her. "Yes, I suppose so. But I also think Katsuichi was trying to get me to quit, so his time could be his own again."

Tomoe dodged a swipe at her head and then tried to get a stab in. Usagi hopped back. She went on, "So his time could be his own? He had you doing all his work for him!"

Usagi chuckled as they continued with their spar. "It was worth it!"

What do you think?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes