Undertow Tanka Review
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UNDERTOW TANKA REVIEW ISSUE # 1 The Talisman of Grief (A tanka sequence) ‘Do you see white hairs?’ Mother asked and I laughed but now I too ask my ten-year old and she rolls her eyes her fourteenth day rite - a blue butterfly alights on the prayer wheel has mother already found a new rebirth? she calls through drifts of mists in the pine grove the fear of not finding her shatters the carapace of dream that coaxing smile as she sculptured mango shapes for my fevered mouth I want to remember this not her cancer-hollowed face each spring her favourite rhododendrons fill the valley with their scent and hue I see her in every bloom Sonam Chhoki Bhutan Earnest (A tanka sequence) forgetting faces yet some of them stick… those kids who hung nicknames around my neck taunts of Ken the Hammer drive me deeper into the hole of myself a bully fishing for weakness