Work Tanka Poems

Built with rusted steel 
Steel mined by the workers’ hands
Faceless above crowds 
An angel not from the blue
But built with man’s blood and hope...

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fast…work is done…slow
quickly…cleaning…sluggishly
a.m. & p.m.
the angst anchored in stalling
then accomplishing it all...

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leave my skin on sight
leave my limbs in their sockets
I believe in your god
life is a tendered spirit
Religion? the Devil's work....

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bees stockpile pollen
then they return to their hives 
while I eat breakfast:
sweet honey was spread on toast. 
meager reward for their work

bees humming loudly ...

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Mother Nature’s tears
No way to treat a Lady 
Eviction Notice 
Home sweet home melodrama 
For Rent: Planet Earth-needs work 

(Addendum: Humans need not apply.)...

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First sprinkles of snow
Snowplows loaded with gravel
Schools are closed notices,
My momma takes off from work
Weather forecaster is wrong!

Written October 11, 2022...

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Milky Way dream spots 
and other-worlds engaged me 
this earthbound urchin
science fiction plots might stir
a pure childhood fantasy 

But golden aura 
folks can sense that...

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Obedience

Nonchalant workers
unfazed by nature’s vista
toil away content
accepting their condition
ageless Mount Fuji silent....

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no recollection
of ebullient memories
life of complex work
too many siblings to please
time for ice-cream if afford

a time of prayer
afterwards back to play cloths
with sweetbread and friends
a...

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Seems I know so well
How to commit with no sense
Of dull commitment;
So I'll do what I so please,
Until my last dollar's spent....

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Dreaming lovely dreams
Hatching big ideas
Just working the plan
Late nights and early mornings
The entrepreneur for sure...

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From the ground, they start
Deeply rooted in the heart
Nurture with focus
Upward they can and will grow
Work and faith you need to sow...

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Day has brightly dawned
Sun in his gold chariot,
comes in royalty
The struggle for livelihood,
is on till the fall of night ...

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Fear presses, cold steel
Constricting thought, killing love. 
Freedom paralysed.
A swallow with tethered wings
Longing for the Sky...

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fallen leaves gathered
plastic sacks for discarding
my tired, aching back
not again is my refrain
boy next door has autumn job

written September 1, 2021...

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