Tanka

I spend months   

       learning to tune

my instrument …

a fakir down the street

is one with his ektara

illusions ride
on a fast fading rainbow
somewhere there
I let go of my childhood ...
I must have

my family wept
over our dog's death
I weep
for those days I grudged him
his early morning walk

I walk

into the forest

          barefoot

    my soul

in touch with roots

        the shell

        of my understanding

        breaks open

        on autumn shores

        I feel the chill

​

[A Tanka doha fashioned on the couplets (with 24 sound units) of Kabir, the famous saint-poet of the 15th Century]

does the shadow move

with the swing or the swing

with the shadow

interlaced, my shadow

rides on time

          mother laments
          being old and bent
          I see her
          as a curved branch
          laden with fruit

​

[A Tanka doha]