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Michael McClintock
my neighbor
the atomic spy
each Tuesday
comes out among the people
for red apples, bread and milk
her presence
lingers long after
her visit —
I'll rinse the wine cup
but not shut the room
I roll the air
under my tongue . . .
an evening in May
a thousand orange groves
scent the morsel
which ever
way I turn
at the zoo
I want to go back and touch
the elephant's paper ears
forest,
meadow,
plain —
the river's silver
thread of Buddha
the late summer sun
pulls down into the ocean
the day’s afterbirth
my sense of waiting too long
for something, for anything
where the iron bridge
crosses the Platte, shivering,
the cottonwoods
open their leaves for a star
that falls toward the river
enough is enough —
painting the old house
I stop at the eaves
deciding to keep them
cobwebbed and beautiful
The final three poems are reprinted from the San Francisco 2008 International Tanka Competition, sponsored by the Haiku Poets of Northern California: the late summer sun, First Place; where the iron bridge, Second Place; and enough is enough —, Honorable Mention.
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Michael McClintock's newest collections are Meals at Midnight (2008) from Modern English Tanka Press, Baltimore, Maryland, and Sketches from the San Joaquin (2009), winner of the 2008 Turtle Light Press Haiku Chapbook Competition, from Turtle Light Press, Highland Park, New Jersey. McClintock's new anthology, Streetlights: Poetry of Urban Life in Modern English Tanka, also appeared in 2009 from Modern English Tanka Press and contains over 800 poems by 69 contemporary tanka poets. He edits American Tanka and lives in central California's San Joaquin Valley.
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Portrait by Karen J. McClintock.
Used by permission.
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