The Spade
by Charlotte Digregorio

walking the seashore
a child again
shoveling sopping sand
with my red spade
now rusted in the old chest

thoughts turn to a sandglass
time left to savor salt scents
unravel seagull sounds
bliss or abyss beyond …
a breeze skims my head





This is a tanka sequence with two single tanka, each requiring five lines and having
a maximum of thirty-one syllables. A lyrical form originating in Japan in the seventh
century, tanka either lack punctuation and capitalization or they are used sparingly.



 

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