my grandfather,
grower of Christmas trees
rows of them
.....before that, children
.....rows of them
his early years
on the Kansas prairie,
memorable
and hard . . . like the squares
of his homemade fudge
—Landfall: Poetry of Place in Modern English Tanka, 2007
What a vivid portrait in just a few words! I can clearly imagine your grandfather . . . especially the fudge!
ReplyDeleteThanks. He was a character and a survivor. "Against all odds," he lived to be nearly 103. And that fudge WAS hard, also gritty (with sugar).
ReplyDeletevery beautiful . . . I like "grower of trees"/"grower of children" ... a wonderful use of space in the first verse . . .
ReplyDeletemany thanks for your comment, maggie. the first one was set in Oklahoma, fyi.
ReplyDelete