on his tractor explaining
where we should have turned
the farmer's voice
picks up the sound
of a gravel road

the birthday hoopla
as if maintaining
my sanity for another year
is some form
of accomplishment

grayed out faces
in the photograph
our teacher erasing
whatever it was
we had written
on the blackboard

Normally, I write my tanka on five lines. This one is an exception.

"We are linked by blood, and blood is memory without language."

~Joyce Carol Oates

as though a week's vacation
might be longer than
seven days
my son has to sit on
his suitcase to close it

knowing the brutality
of a saint louis summer
the purple coneflower
opens up like
a closed umbrella

endless spam opportunties
I throw away a career
stuffing envelopes
and an offer for valium
without a prescription

not scoring
a single run
the night sky filled
with the all stars
no one voted for

hanging onto the power lines
for six months now
the frail skeleton
of a tree branch
powerless to move on

"A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular." 

~Adlai E. Stevenson