another summer —
am I any more alive
than these tulips
dropping their petals
on the kitchen table?
how heavy
the blue of the sky
this morning
a sunlit snowscape
amplifies my hangover
numb
to daily news of death
from war
I'm fascinated
by the beetle I crushed
even though
they look alike...
my scar
is different
than the veteran's
the Milky Way . . .
sometimes I feel
like a moth
clinging to a door
that will soon be opened
last day of vacation . . .
the notebook I wanted
to fill with poetry
is empty
except for sand
Collin Barber is from Memphis, Tennessee, and he currently lives in Marion, Arkansas. He has been attempting to write tanka since 2006, and some of his work can be seen in various publications such as bottle rockets, Eucalypt, Magnapoets, Modern English Tanka, moonset, Notes From the Gean, Prune Juice, Ribbons, Tanka Splendor Awards, and Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka. In 2008 he received Third Prize in the TSA International Tanka Competition. He maintains his own website at
http://collinbarber.com .
Collin Barber is from Memphis, Tennessee, and he currently lives in Marion, Arkansas. He has been attempting to write tanka since 2006, and some of his work can be seen in various publications such as bottle rockets, Eucalypt, Magnapoets, Modern English Tanka, moonset, Notes From the Gean, Prune Juice, Ribbons, Tanka Splendor Awards, and Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka. In 2008 he received Third Prize in the TSA International Tanka Competition. He maintains his own website at