Tanka Girl

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