Tanka--By Elizabeth Howard--United States

we build a fire in the cabin

settle down on sleeping bags . . .

all night wasps buzz and fall--

at dawn we lie hostage

to a carpet of torpid wasps 

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a boy nets a crab

watches the net dissolve

in the crab’s claws--

as recompense

he boils the crab for lunch

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the boy tosses a stick

the labrador retrieves it

untiring --

I sit watching,

my shoulder unhinged

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Elizabeth Howard lives in Crossville, Tennessee. She writes poetry and fiction. Her poems have appeared in Comstock Review, Big Muddy, Appalachian Heritage, Cold Mountain Review, Poem, Still, Mobius, Now & Then, Slant, and other journals.