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Tish Davis

While Running the Course

The thoughts of the earth are my thoughts

this grandmother body
stretching before a 10k
in my hometown
the hospital where I was born
crumbled long ago

to raise money
for church youth to help the homeless
read the post;
did I sign up
only to clock my pace?

The voice of the earth is my voice

the starting horn
at predetermined intervals;
my iPod 
dies unexpectedly
before the second mile

my lucky socks 
breathe,
breathe I say
passing the resting place
of dead relatives

All that belongs to the earth belong to me

orange cones
in the middle of the road
unevenly spaced
my stride 
on this cold spring pavement

unzipping my jacket,
knotting it around my waist
how refreshing
this water
water from these young church volunteers!

All that surrounds the earth surrounds me

to a stranger
I toss my jacket, my keys
before crossing
hardened steel—
the railroad's parallel lines

where the road curves
and overlooks the Grand River
an eagle
lends me
her DNA

It is lovely indeed; it is lovely indeed

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Author’s Notes:

1) Italics:  American Indian. “Navajo Song.”  www.world prayers.org/archives/prayers/celebrations/it_is_lovely_indeed. 

2) first published in M. Kei’s Stacking Stones: An Anthology of Short Tanka Sequences*, August 2018       (*Anthology also includes Tanka Prose.)

3) M. Kei notes an anthology that is a ‘sequence of sequences,’ serving as an exemplar of the synergy of using tanka as building blocks in larger, more complex works.

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About the Author

Tish Davis lives in Northern Ohio. Her tanka and related forms have appeared in numerous online and print publications. When she isn’t busy with work and grandchildren she enjoys exploring the local parks with her husband and three dogs.