Poetic Musings: Wild Horse Skateboard Tanka by Chen-ou Liu

no lights on
in his mother’s new house …
the clip-clop
of his Wild Horse skateboard
fading into the night

Favorite Tanka, 2016 Tanka Society of America Members’ Anthology

Chen-ou Liu

Selection & Reflections by Beverley George (posted on TSA Facebook page, July 20): This compelling tanka creates a mood; tells a story; leaves the reader conjecturing. So much depends on the simple word ‘new’. It raises the question of why the son has no access to his mother’s home; hints that he may have had to the former one. The brand-named skateboard suggests that he is young.The first and last lines bookend the poem with darkness. Sound plays its part with ‘clip-clop’ linking to the skateboard’s name and ‘fading’ adding to the feeling of separation and loneliness. A short story in five lines.