Tanka by Larry Kimmel

like the red leaf
that floats around
the river’s bend
and out of view -
my childhood home
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whether the goldfinch
displaced or replaced
the yellow leaf
in that instant exchange
- who can say?
______________

as a child
what can you do
but accept what
comes along? -
even grotesques in the window at night
______________

I sit in a green dusk,
the stone bench cool
to my back -
a momentary oasis
in the scorch of dailiness
______________

American Tanka: Issue 5; Fall 1998.

a drizzly day,
with yellow leaves pasted
to wet black pavement -
returning the library books
she left behind . . .
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American Tanka Issue 8; Spring 2000

I've come again
to this oak-gripped bank—
who knows why?
recalling our last time here together,
I watch a red leaf drift out of sight
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