Terra Martin
adopted…
still the dim cameo
of mother’s face
gingerly I transplant
the wild violet
when dropped
my heart’s like quicksilver
spilling
into wayward beads
of shiny sorrow
no wind
but the aspen
trembles
after hinting for more…
you slowly exhale
the improv
of the saxophone
as vast, as a sky
composed of every tone
of blue
as carefully
as wandering
through backwoods
I explore your
impatient mood
hazy
like an old photo
your death…
still in focus
the time we captured
as a child
I dreamt in color
never grasping
the world
of black and white
clearly
the eyebrow moon
raised
brings back your
betrayal
dancing
around your words
I waltz
in and out of
kiss and make-up
if I were a tree
with roots firmly planted
would I outgrow
my beliefs
that limit change
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Terra Martin is a practicing therapist in Toronto . Her poetry has been published in Amaze, American Tanka, Asahi Shimbun (Japan), Atlas Poetica, bottle rockets, Eucalypt (Australia), Green Leaf Files (England), Haiga Online, Lynx, Modern English Tanka, moonset, Ribbons, Simply Haiku, 3 Lights Gallery (England), Landfall, Streetlights and The Tanka Prose anthologies.
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