Two Tanka

        by Jane Wilson

                job interview—

                a fingernail clipping

                balances

                at the edge

                of the bathroom counter

                                Michael Dylan Welch

This tanka suggests that the speaker has just left home for a job interview, leaving behind a fingernail clipping that “balances” of the edge of the bathroom counter. The fingernail clipping cleverly suggests the nervousness of the speaker whose career or income depends on the outcome of the interview. From a larger perspective, the fingernail clipping also suggests what we all face as we struggle to balance our lives between the need for social acceptance and our need for individual freedom.

                summer breeze

                lifts a corner

                of our picnic blanket—

                I place a grape

                on your outstretched tongue

                                Michael Dylan Welch

This tanka is playfully erotic. Just as the speaker in the poem is enjoying the sensuality of placing a grape on a lover’s outstretched tongue, the picnic basket [she means “blanket”—see part 4 of “Typos Happen” for an explanation] appears to be enjoying the sensual play of the summer wind.