Issue 1 - June 2025 - Tanka page 6

house snapshot
decades-old and banal
indelible
because behind that door
my father is alive

Cynthia Bale, Canada

reading notes
we passed in high school
thirty years later
I'm still asking you
the same questions

Julie Bloss Kelsey, USA

playing soldiers with friends
toy guns and firecrackers
back in the 50s
never dreamed we'd be there
with real guns in the 60s

Charles Harmon, USA

always talking
and writing about mom
it was dad
my fallen hero who taught
my poetic heart to sing

Kathabela Wilson, USA

blowing
the last seed
from a dandelion
all my wishes died
when you did

Pamela A. Babusci, USA

parallel roads
become visible over ridges
for brief moments
to access, need I go
back or forward

Jerome Berglund, USA