Friday, April 24, 2015

Blueline and Red Thread: Scream from the Shadows, II

she whispers,
I'm good at intimacy
with strangers ...
I see the light go out
in the escort's eyes

behind my back
they whisper slanted eyes ...
in a dream
I unzip my skin,
put on another
(Note: Highly Commended, 5th Kokako Tanka Competition, 2014. Below is a comment by the Judge: In "behind my back," the effect of verbal abuse is communicated in striking fashion, through a dream, which somehow connects us all. -- commentary by the judge, Owen Bullock, Kokako, 22, 2015 )

Note: "Scream from the Shadows" is the first themed section of  Blueline and Red Thread, the first collection of sociopolitical tanka. And you can read the preceding tanka here.

1 comment:

  1. The phrase, "slanted eyes," is a racist slur that refers to a person of Asian descent, especially of Chinese descent.

    The following is my haiku sequence about this issue of racism, which was first published on Whispers:

    Racialized Chinese Canadians
    a haiku sequence written in response to The Accidental Asian by Eric Liu, Bill Clinton's deputy domestic policy adviser and speech writer

    chinks go home!
    all she sees in the mirror
    are slanted eyes

    chinks go home!
    the spit on my face
    cold as snow

    chinks go home!
    again and again
    he scrubs his hand

    ReplyDelete