I still can't believe that I won first place! I had two tanka written for the prose and I keep changing my mind. Too bad I can never know if I still would have won if I submitted the other tanka. Thank you so much to Amanda DCosta and Susan Burch for organizing this contest every year.
Eclipsed
As soon as my eyes are closed, I’m swept into a library of dusty memories. The heaviest book from my crammed bookshelf easily slips between my hands. I’ve no choice because it opens itself and I’m instantly wearing my green and white uniform. Over and over, I stumble on the same sentences. I grasp for more words from a poem which I know I’ve memorized a hundred times. Nothing comes back to me. All I can gather are beads of sweat.
Then I miss the bus. Or did I just ride the wrong bus? Someone is waiting for me at home. He's now pacing back and forth while I’m going around in circles. Should I call and say I’m running late? Why can’t I remember anybody’s phone number?
I scurry in and out of shopping malls. Where’s the red dress I saw the other day? I rummage through a stack of clothes bins and squiggle my way deep into the bottom. Deeper…Deeper… Before I know it, I find myself running to a bus stop. I’m so relieved to see four-wheel vehicles leading to somewhere… But where is home? I try to fly. I know I could fly at one time. Maybe this time I would.
“What’s happening here? Why am I at the wrong side of the freeway? I’m going back to Oroville!!! We are supposed to be on our way to Sacramento?” his voice an octave higher.
I wake up from a haze, wondering which one isn’t real.
a spiral
winding to the center
of a moon shell . . .
that time when I lived
in a world of paper dolls
***Comment by contestants: This is an interesting tanka prose that presents a dreamlike state to the reader. The title and tanka work too. I like the fact that the title has more than one meaning. I am not sure the last line of the prose is needed. One quibble is I was distracted by the several question-mark sentences in the second paragraph.
Click the link here to the website so you can see the other winners and enjoy their tanka prose as well.
