From the collection The Immediate and No Sooner, published in 2021.
Tanka 240
Too upset to drive.
Forgot she even knew how.
Misunderstandings.
A drama hardened. She sat
in the back seat and she cried.
12/14/20
Tanka 241
the neighbors laughing
the broom scraping on concrete
the screen door slamming
the rusty melody of
bringing in the garbage cans
12/14/20
Tanka 242
The billfold offers
temptation I don’t resist.
Kidnap dollar bills.
Leave it mortified empty.
It should have kept its mouth shut.
12/15/20
The personification in that final poem is excellent. I also enjoy the insistence of passivity of the narrator and the aggressive victim blaming. The middle poem is a great capture of those everyday neighbourhood sounds and the first poem is achingly sad.
Thank you. Such dramas life offers, all around us, I think.