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In May 2020, I posted on my blog (davereadpoetry.blogspot.com) an echapbook of tanka called Rubber-Ball Days. Here are a handful of my favourite poems from that collection:
a cool breeze
pushes its way
through my window—
the chill
of self-isolation
he asks me
when the pandemic
will end —
I study the slope
of his shoulders
replacing the sound
of passing traffic
a small
convention
of birds
his workplace
announces
a new round of layoffs —
he muffles his thoughts
with a mask
slipping out into
these quarantined streets
I walk with
the ghost
of my freedom
sandcastles line
the now open beach —
we await
the next wave
of the virus
a cool breeze
pushes its way
through my window—
the chill
of self-isolation
he asks me
when the pandemic
will end —
I study the slope
of his shoulders
replacing the sound
of passing traffic
a small
convention
of birds
his workplace
announces
a new round of layoffs —
he muffles his thoughts
with a mask
slipping out into
these quarantined streets
I walk with
the ghost
of my freedom
sandcastles line
the now open beach —
we await
the next wave
of the virus
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