From the poetry collection published in 2021 containing poems written in 2020, The Immediate and No Sooner.
Tanka 193
your blasé landlord
sits smoking in the backyard
next to the birdbath
that no longer holds water
fat ass in a webbed lawn chair
8/31/20
Tanka 194
And so outrageous
flamboyant raucous gaudy!
No lie about that
right? There’s nothing better than
a good loud garish, is there?
8/31/20
Tanka 195
old guy on a bike
rattles it through the rough grass
flings it on the ground
leaps out into the sunshine
reels off fifty jumping jacks
9/10/20
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
I wish I had the energy of the chap in your final poem. I just finished up my first day of teaching of this school year and I am beat! The middle poem makes me think of the way you use colour in your paintings and the way you will deploy a very eye-catching colour to really pop within the composition.
I actually witnessed the guy in the last poem just as I wrote it. It was the kind of thing that you wonder if you really saw that. And congratulations on first day of school!
I can so picture that landlord in the first one, and the energetic old guy in the last one, too. 😀
Thank you. I really enjoy trying to come up with a word portrait in these short forms and to get a sense of the person across in just a few words.
You do it very well.
Thank you!
I remember 195 (or an earlier version of it)…from the days that we saw more of people’s exercise routines outdoors…I also like the element of surprise when seeing the muscles of an older person in action.
I know form the gym that there are a lot of very fit older people out there and some of them don’t look it, either. I am glad since I am now in this older category myself, to feel I could stll keep up with fitness and strength and maybe surprise some people!