Chen-ou Liu's Translation Project: First English-Chinese Haiku and Tanka Blog

Sunday, August 7, 2022

déjà vu in "love"

predawn hush ...
at the back of my mind
her words linger,
I love you, but cannot live
with the ghosts of your past

alone
I take a sleeping pill
with whiskey …
in broad daylight
the darkness grows heavy

at long last
I take down her photo
a nail hole
in the bedroom wall
and in my heart

two silhouettes
embracing at the window --
I wonder
what sweet words she whispers
in her new lover's ear

the glow
of her Capri cigarette
this sultry night
like a moth my heart
flutters around her lips


Note: I expanded my "predawn hush" tanka into a tanka sequence, déjà vu in "love."


Added:

defeated
by her demand for more space
I sleep soundly
curled into summer stickiness
on our red leather sofa