WORK IN PROGRESS
”If there is a correct answer to the question: “What is the Tao?” it is: “I don’t know.” Thomas Merton
TANKA
Trees flare in cold blue
New England. I stare out fogged
windows. In Ukraine,
Russian conscripts rape children.
Life is intolerable.
II
i.m. Marion Wrye, Riverside
I wake in the dark.
From across the Providence
a cry comes. My old,
sick friend dies. In her faint voice
the light of the fading stars.
III
Day dawns. Not good nor
evil claims the daybreak, nor
is good proportion-
ate to my measureless needs.
Bright clouds reform on the Bay.
IV
Noon. The blank page. I
am fresh out of ideas.
In the empty bowl
of water, my cat’s gaze be-
yond my sweet sovereign self.
V
I have met someone.
That’s all I can say. We talk.
Afternoons, endless
before, shorten our walks; our
conversations; silences.
.
Metaxyturn Diaries 