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Larry Kimmel
always fascinated by
that last half-inch in the long crawl
of evolution
where mankind straightens
to step out of the picture
eons ago
an Eocene fish got buried in mud —
now framed
on my stairway wall
its fossiled fame
the sea-green pool
in the woodland river —
after 30 years and all
the great capitals of the world,
the sea-green pool
this past August,
all at once, the abuse of a decade
condensed into a bullet —
there's a house for sale
in our neighborhood
family in bed
and term papers graded —
he steps,
without hope, into the snowy night
to see her bedroom window lit
you phone saying, "it's me,"
as if I should have
a long-distance heart on —
don't you know it's a moonless
middle of the night here
Larry Kimmel's tanka and haiku have been published in England, Canada, Romania, Australia, Russia and Japan, as well as throughout the US. His most recent books are a river years from here (haibun); Blue Night & the inadequacy of long-stemmed roses (tanka and other short poems); and this hunger, tissue-thin (tanka). He lives with his wife in the hills of western Massachusetts, USA.
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