English Original
Gay Pride Parade
I live to see the day
a cop
greets his boyfriend
with a kiss on the street
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
同性戀驕傲大遊行
我活著看到這一天
一位警察
迎接他的男朋友
並在街上親吻
同性恋骄傲大游行
我活着看到这一天
一位警察
迎接他的男朋友
并在街上亲吻
Bio Sketch
Brian Zimmer wrote from the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. His work had appeared in various international print and online journals. He took inspiration from a variety of sources, including the ancient Japanese poetic-diary (utanikki) and free-form, poetic "essay" (zuihitsu).
Brian's heartfelt tanka effectively builds, poetic phrase/line by poetic phrase/line, to a thematically significant and emotionally powerful ending that reveals the theme of being proud of who you are (in the case of his tanka, a cop, a member of the most conservative /established institution whose sociopolitical focus is to maintain Law and Order.
ReplyDeleteAnd it might be interesting to do a comparative reading of my tanka below:
summer twilight
at the Stonewall Inn
he slides his hand
over the man beside him
murmuring, "for real this time?"
Atlas Poetica, 10, Fall 201
Brian posted his "Gay Pride Parade tanka" on Twitter on Jun 12, 2014 and passed away on November 5th.
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