the memory
of my old friend Elisabeth
and her dandelions ...
I was a penniless orphan
she was a liberal blond
if I had
even only one sister
you and I
know that would have been
enough for a pillow fight
sewing a button
onto an old shirt
all this time
the persistent need
to make ends meet
my husband
of fifty-six years ...
the women
still turn their heads
and ignore me
I sit and look
at a picture of me
as a twelve-year-old
something nudges me
to draw fangs on it
by tomorrow
someone will have asked me
how my day went --
my chemotherapy session
and the divorce papers
spring evening ...
what if I fall asleep like
my grandmother
with my glasses on
the gas pipes still open
crescent moon
high behind the basilica
the iron cross
bright with two spotlights
which turn off at midnight
right here
my gifts are wrapped
and ready
your seeing-eye dog sniffs
and barks at hidden candy
My contributions to the Summer 2008 edition of Modern English Tanka, the issues of which I regularly browse through. If I am not mistaken, these were written within a space of six hours, at a fairly leisurely pace. It was one of those evenings when I felt overwhelmed by verses and needed to nail them down on the flatscreen of my laptop before they sailed on to other shores. That also happened to be one of the very last evenings of peace before the weeks of overtime that followed. Not that I regret working (fabulous job, good pay). It's the lack of time to write that can be a damper.
