My family stood
Serene with bound happiness—
Inside the display
Of wild trapped beasts and caged birds—
Symbolically occupied.
This is the last tanka based on my childhood memories. More may come if more memories return.
The photo is one of two taken at the time represented by these poems and included with them; it shows my mother and father and my older sister June and me at the Tokyo Zoo. I believe the photo was taken by a willing Japanese citizen who was touring the zoo with his family at the same time.
The other photo, which appears before the first tanka, is of my sister (before diabetes) and me on the deck of the U.S.S. Sullivan. This photo was no doubt taken by my mother. The ship was named after the family that lost five boys in one battle during World War Two. They had been sailors--all serving on the same ship.
My sister was two years short of being a "baby boomer," but I was one of the first of my crowded generation. As our lives progressed, I found this fact to be a dividing line of tastes and attitudes between my sister and me.
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