Tanka Girl

in trying to write
the trying becomes harder
words chafe on the page
and I hate every idea
until I give it all up

small break while Tanka Girl gets school work shaped up

extraneous words
laborious metaphors
make for a slow read
like syrup on a pancake
like what the f* does it mean

I look like my aunt
my aunt looks like my grandma
my aunt denies this
my grandma looks like her mom
and her mom came from Sweden

fact: many of Tanka Girls poems are fiction.

Tho I do look like my aunt, she looks like her grandmother - but that grandmother is not my grandmother's mother. Confused? Sallright.

can't blame her for it
she was born with boobs and hips
a girl can't help it
TAGC combine and
voilà you're a sex-pot



Tanka Girl is going to Seattle to help sweetest aunt recover from surgery. I'll see to posting but forgive me if I flub it off like a lazy bum who's busy tending family matters.

they still don't get it
Marilyn Monroe married
to Arthur Miller
the mind is not the body
but body is all we see

I hiss through my teeth
as my cat claws the sofa
I tell him to stop
ignoring me he pulls threads
until I stand up and yell

hot pink rubber shoes
beware of gingivitis
stirring pots of soup
this is what the tv shows
when I flick through the channels

lots of things to do
but nothing ever gets done
knitting still not through
work deadlines are yet to come
why can't I be entertained

writing all day long
fingers curled in from typing
half a cantaloupe
an empty tray of cookies
and a ravaged sack of chips

I update my links
connecting to some journals
publishing tanka
dealing with long-dead topics
like sailboating emperors

without shedding blood
no forgiveness of your sins
take your vicodin
one out of four citizens
is in prison - but what for

that suit is perfect
see history has failed us
she is infusive
there is no equality
if only I could be her

I can hardly breathe
those damn kids with their rockets
knee high sparkler spray
flashing red and blue all night
and me too old to enjoy

Ronald Reagan's gut
I can't stop thinking of it
stuffed with juicy treats
rotund in a rotunda
feeding nothing but a box

Bah to these questions
peace is not inside your head
windows are blockades
we can't imagine nature
just to look is not enough

Jesus died for you
without blood, no safety found
the army wants you
redemption found on a pew
recruitment found in high school

hey, y'all. I'm at school - pacific university low-res mfa - get heavy w/o me, k?

our bodies crumble
what's the point of healthy food
desperate exercise
arms, legs pushing away worms
inevitable as breath

they had sextuplets
and camera crews follow them
what helps pay the bills
shield the kids from the beggars
let them go to disneyland

easier to write
than to walk down interstate
see the cops at work
cuffing another poor guy
no more 'will work for food' sign

quality of life
questionable in these days
bulbs shipped from Holland
dinner shipped in pressed wood crate
soul shipped in box with iphone

they're building a dam
the world's third longest river
hydroelectric
millions relocate
sea life doomed to die

because you are smart
you think they think you are dumb
forget what they think
squeamishness serves the weak ones
there's no valor in squeamish

she's a vampire
she has no skills or a clue
old enough to know
but the blood damaged her brain
now she sits and drinks coffee

no one comes to read
which, for this author, is good
because i can skip
instead stare out the window
at the crossing power lines

some days I am rash
like a grumpy household pet
that never gets out
gives you disdainful glances
and you know there's no repair

fifty five emails
over two hundred folders
a system of life
for those who fear the living
and interface through a screen

each of us decends
from that ancient átomos
primitive adam
with mass in the nucleus
surrounded by social laws

they say that it's true
there's prozac in the water
more serotonin
pisses through city filters
and fish are soaked with prozac