Milky Blue


                                                  having yet to pay
                                                              the price for awakening
                                                              in this world
                                                              I still wait to hear
                                                              a nightingale's song



                                                               in a dream of him
                                                               I leap down
                                                               whole mountainsides
                                                               as if the earth itself is too
                                                               rare a thing to touch



                                                              "if I tell you the truth"
                                                              only you and I say this . . .
                                                              holding back nothing
                                                              petals of the hyacinth
                                                              open to the world



                                                              milky blue—
                                                              our last hours together
                                                              the veins in my wrist
                                                              return like rainwater
                                                              to the sea



                                                              morning twilight
                                                              finds me alone
                                                              with this animal
                                                              that is my body—
                                                              blood, flesh, heat

                                                

                                              Return to the Tanka Online Gallery Main Page