My thanks to my friend, poet and editor, Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy for writing this tanka sequence, “Changing Notes,” with me. It was published in Kokako 29, a journal of the Poetry Society of New Zealand.

 Changing Notes

A Responsive Tanka Sequence

by

Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy (UK) and Mary Kendall (USA)

glass bangles
tinkling with laughter 
rice grains
strewn on the newlyweds
seeding a new dream

(SK)

such longing
month after month
turning to years
suddenly the emptiness
disappears

(MK)

the curve of his hand
cups the moon 
quickening
the one butterfly
aflutter in my belly

(SK)

watching
the fragile pulse
of his fontanelle
and those half smiles
in his milky dreams

(MK)

rocking horse
hither and thither 
the long curls
of sun-kissed memories
braided into birdsong 

(SK)

one day his son will chatter
in a different tongue
raven locks
eased into smoothness
. . . a new chosen land

(MK)