Tag Archives: Tanka

Propriety be damned

“If My Lady would indulge me.” He bows smartly at the waist, his pampered palm outstretched. Every rule of decency demands, I must elegantly accept. 

His spit shine and neatened whiskers a blatant effrontery of couth, as ill intention sweet as succor slips, past lewd lascivious lips.

I smile through risen bile, endure his heated breath upon my nape. As stripped of everything but, title, all propriety be damned, I do as desperation dictates- and oblige- this deplorable ilk of man.

dread of derision
erases all decorum
impropriety ensues

It’s been awhile since I participated in Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday #synonymsonly. This weeks words Grace and Style however fed right my recent obsession with viewing all six seasons of Downton Abbey in their entirety- again- and I just had to try my hand.

My word choices have been italicized.

The Girl

Photo Courtesy of Dale Rogerson


The girl’s a live wire
from woven hair to mani’d
tips- she’s electric.

The girl’s on fire
magazine covers smokin’
Youtube links burn bright

The girl’s hot copy
glam pix or sordid romance
media laps it up

The girl is burnin’
flaming tongues set her ablaze
‘spec’ fuels the fire

The girl’s a train wreck.
Her every move on trial.
Bruised and battered, once
shooting star- snuffed out. John Q
Public? Drunk on her demise.

This chain of Haikus ending in a Tanka was written for Tanka Tuesday #synonyms only for the words: Pretty and Ugly. My choices are italicized.

The photo that served as my inspiration for this piece was provided by Friday Fictioneers.

Healy

My View

It is trailer park crazy up here, just up the road from Healy Alaska. I am talking Meth Lab Central looking to the more discerning eye. Junk cars, discarded furniture, buses that have a number of wheels standing between them and the road.

I am assigned to a trailer named Sunshine. She is a rich harvest gold. She is warm and bright, and I would venture to guess has been- since that color was a staple in American home decorating.

My view is snow capped Mount Healy, crowned in her majestic Castle Rock. I follow the moose tracks on the footpath just outside my bedroom window. They take me to the spruce surrounded silence that is Lake Otto, still tucked under what’s left of winters warm blanket of ice. The scent of spring whistles on the wind. And it is no longer the autumn of my life.

Healy Alaska
essential ingredients
in abundance

Wind, sky, and mountains
more than make up for the lack
of running water

Tinderbox trailer
park, kindling for long dried soul
ignites infinite
possibilities for a
blossom once lost in the haze

Written for Frank’s Hakai Challenge: Blossoms Haze.

My connectivity is currently limited. We have wifi in the wash house, which is right next to the outhouse, but not in our individual trailers.

I have imparted on an amazing adventure, and I’ll do my best to take you along, that is if you feel like doing remote Alaska in the springtime…

No olive branch

Unable to find original attribution

I accuse him. In my attempt to prove he has lied, yet again, it becomes evident that my accusation is unfounded.

My accusation is based on facts. The fact that he is a compulsive liar. The fact that I cannot believe a word that comes out of his mouth- without researching it first. The fact that our friendship has been irreparably maimed by a continuous stream of untruths. The fact that I am angry. The fact that I feel disrespected, betrayed.

I apologize for my erroneous accusation, however, I cannot find it in my heart, to extend the olive branch.

Nothing so simple
as the lily’s promise of
resurrection, can
bring forgiveness, when the heart
has been fermented by lies.

This Haibun/Tanka has been written for Frank Tassone’s Haikai Challenge: Easter Lily and Misk’s Twiglet: ‘nothing so simple‘.