Skinheads Tanka

face to face
with a group of skinheads
in broad daylight
we raise our middle fingers ...
me and my shadow

Blueline and Red Thread, 2015

White Crows Tanka

at twilight
three white crows on the wire ...
his words linger,
Don't get all P.C. on me.
It's tribal, not racist

Blueline and Red Thread, 2015

Inglish Tanka

high noon sunlight
beats down on this rooming house...
the migrant
with a gap-toothed smile
says, I'm learning Inglish

Blueline and Red Thread, 2015

Chinglish Tanka

the tongues
of a maple tree
are bare ...
my loss of home
speaks in Chinglish

Blueline and Red Thread, 2015

Willpower Tanka

a senate claims
women can block rape sperm
with willpower!
throughout the night, I hear
walnuts hitting the ground

Blueline and Red Thread, 2015
forthcoming in "Sex and Gender," Atlas Poetica, 2015

White Neighbors Tanka

white neighbors
who shout no more immigrants
and I now live
in a world of one color:
snow falling on snow

Blueline and Red Thread, 2015

Intimacy Tanka

she whispers,
I'm good at intimacy
with strangers ...
I see the light go out
in the escort's eyes

Blueline and Red Thread, 2015

Scream Tanka

the drunk
on top of his wife
as she screams
then becomes silent ...
snow falling on snow

Blueline and Red Thread, 2015

Blueline and Red Thread Tanka

I protest
with my mouth taped:
don't stain my poems,
Blueline and Red Thread,
with your snow-white kiss

Blueline and Red Thread, 2015

Note: This is the title tanka of the first collection of sociopolitical tanka, Blueline and Red Thread. and it's dedicated to Krzysztof Kieślowski, film director of The Three Colors Trilogy (the collective title of three films, Blue, White, and Red, loosely based on one of the three political ideals in the motto of the French Republic: liberty, equality, fraternity)