Tanka Girl

starve our enemies
no goose without lots of sage
we don't need them here
thicken the gravy a bit
to each his own slice of breast

the pop singer groans
expressing his desire
the teenager sighs
with heavy disappointment
his potential is repressed

sex is for artists
that's what all the mothers say
angry that they aged
artists revel in sinning
they don't want it, we'll take it

they tell us we live
alone and solitary
I see we are all
bound tight over chain and spoke
forced through the same grind of steel

it's a bad barrel
that spoils a golden apple
a heathen mother
that cooks red apples to charm
hoping to bait missing girls

everything is text
as molecules are a desk
and the air is soup
we are particulate bits
of amazing alphabet

all I want is love
generosity in kind
my hand can be hard
what I am is what I see
what I see is on my tongue

improvise the trick
sleight of hand, turn of the screw
the magician winks
big men are out to get rich
magician wants your laughter

I have stopped eating
there is no protesting time
tick tock and we die
I want to die so I stop
eating from the inside out

pollen smothering
big flakes swimming through the air
Beijing takes action
changes the sex of the trees
seeds clouds, forces snow, makes change

you think you're so smart
tell me about computers
semiconductors
bits, bytes, memory, firmware
the child of a Jacquard loom

it's just a dream, dream
trimming the split ends
crows peck at fast food garbage
a fine solution for life

I'm minimum wage
short breaks, long hours, no nonsense,
disposable staff
better hot-step it, tap dance,
wave the hat and cane, soft shoe

is this the spirit
the way to make for loving
remote, unfriended
melancholy, slow or by
Goldsmith's Traveller; vain, vain

the dog gets a bone
people take from each other
a child gets a gun
neighbors fight, lovers divorce
the world is at odds, wanting

all these ways to blow
to just fritter time away
fritter it away
many unproductive days
but contented, lazy mind

you used to be fit
it used to be exciting
there were no worries
then the days grew shorter and
you grew frail and concerned

he is learning drums
he taps his fingers in time
stomp every two beats
and a rippy rap on his thigh
one-e and a two-e and

a day for conflict
where have they gone, those great minds
slip from memory
defy naming, synonyms
for we shall know their absence

the siren calling
wailing, crying over waves
is not meant for you
you'd do well to ignore it
don't you have trouble enough

writing takes all day
expends all imagining
hills over rooftops
wires beyond all of that
and the curve of horizon

men of good repute
are bound and in perdition
with letters in hand
replications of duty
grok that men make trouble own

my books are stacked high
near to toppling over
Mitchell, Twain, Hoeg
Wodehouse, Lightman, Powers, Grimm
all these lives condensed to words

there are analysts
reassuring us of wealth
comparing nations
counting the invisible
tallying improbables

no independence
our government dictates it
we are all equal
brother, lend me a hand here
sister, do not dare escape

there is a green park
with red brick walls and cobbles
and roses budding
located on Ainsworth Ave
frequented only by me

Wrapped up with shades
she stands, a dreaming statue
goldenrod hijab
thumbing a dictionary
thinking of America

she loves him the most
she belongs to another
he knows she loves him
she knows it may never be
resigned the two live apart

of the theremin
virtuosos are still few
hands graceful and sure
Clara Rockmore played refined
with enthusiastic grace

they talk about tube
two guys dipping fry baskets
and flipping burgers
gossip about lyric style
and the way she does her hair