Magnetic Paper Clips by Michael McClintock and Johnye Strickland
The following is commentary by the judges
of the 2008 Tanka Society of America International Tanka Contest, in which this
poem was an honourable mention. First published in Ribbons in 2008. In addition, on 5 November 2019, the
poem appeared on Chen-ou Liu’s “NeverEnding Story” blog, with his
translations into traditional and simplified Chinese, plus commentary. +
a
week after
my
coworker’s suicide,
the
sculpture on her desk
collapses—magnetic
paper clips
that
held nothing together
Michael Dylan Welch
Sammamish, Washington
Michael Dylan Welch’s sculpture of paper clips—something we have all seen and
may even have on our own desktops—is turned into a powerful metaphor about the
fragility of life, and of individual purpose, in our time.
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