Tanka from Fire Pearls

Haitian woman,
spawn of powerful genes—
work your spell
use your voodoo fingers
to enliven this old man

Like the climbing rose
let my arms encircle
your brown torso
whisper in my ear
to make me bloom


electrify me—
spin your youth in a charm,
awaken runes
dormant with age and distance,
ripen once more this old tree


in the morning
we rise and part for work—
each day is full
the chocolate morsel at lunch
swells my thought of your delights


in the mid-day-heat
undesirable plants grow
with great passions
I cultivate our tidy
garden, clipping spent blooms


feed our bodies—
extraordinary cuisine
with delicate skill
your specialties still hunger
and quell our wondering souls


cricket song at dusk
the charcoal smell of salmon
fills my senses
beside you in firelight
all my longings vanish

together we thrash
as though in a rip tide—
clinging to the edge
of being we reach a shore
touching the cooled sands again


spent, side by side—
we watch spilled stars brighten
in velvet blackness
can you ever know the depth
of my love for you?


frayed brown grasses
dormant in the June sun—
the call of a crow
in the stillness at sunrise
I kiss your bare shoulder


when I die
mould an amber amulet
with my ash
wear it around your neck
dangling in your brown breasts


Previously published in Fire Pearls: Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart. M. Kei, Publisher and Editor. Perryville, Maryland, 2006. Lulu Enterprises, Inc.: www.lulu.com. Pages: 20, 21, 24, 46, 47, 48, 68, 106, 112, 131.


mourners assemble
after Joe's funeral—
they come
to pick widow Green's apples
and press out the amber juice


Previously published in Fire Pearls: Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart. M. Kei, Publisher and Editor. Perryville, Maryland, 2006. Lulu Enterprises, Inc.: www.lulu.com. Pages: 20, 21, 24, 46, 47, 48, 68, 106, 112, 131.