From the collection published in 2021, The Immediate and No Sooner.
Shadorma 307
social crash
the wreck still smoking
open mouths
set to gasp?
or wide-eyed vultures waiting
to pick the carcass?
7/23/20
Tanka 187
Beat-up umbrella
sags against the wall. Sprung rib.
Bent tip. Loose folds droop.
Puddle on the tile floor. Sighs.
Settles to its well-earned rest.
8/6/20
I feel for that poor battered umbrella. I hope there was a stretch of sunshine so it could rest and recuperate. Your first poem is wonderfully observed. Those vultures you describe are more than rubberneckers, more than just people experiencing schadenfreude, they are the type who positively revel in the misery and tragedy of others.
Yes, so many people relish another’s person’s downfall and seem to be proud of it. Wait until it happens to them, I say. As for the umbrella, they lead very hard lives, all of them!