
wild turkey tanka
mornings, wild turkeys meander around tract homes and manicured lawns where their stand of pine trees grew providing them shadows, shade
jump started tanka
Dodge Nitro parked on my driveway all summer, fall, winter, battery drained, charged, replaced, drained again. I charged in hospital beds.
inside out inflamed tanka
In Shadyside Hospital for surgery to remove a cancerous kid- ney tumor, I woke kidneyless, dialysis three times a week, ever- y week for my life.
coronavirus prom tanka
unrented tuxes hang in Joe’s Tux Shop’s display windows, face sleek gowns in Marie’s Bridal Shop, ties crooked, arms empty
About the author:

Antonio Vallone is an associate professor of English at Penn State DuBois. He earned an MA in literature and creative writing from SUNY Brockport, an MFA in poetry from Indiana University, and completed the coursework for a PhD in composition and rhetoric from Purdue University.
Founding publisher of MAMMOTH books, he is also poetry editor of Pennsylvania English and co-founding editor of The Watershed Journal Literary Group—which provides journal and book publishing opportunities for Pennsylvania writers and runs Watershed Books, a writer’s space and used bookstore.
He is a board member of The Watershed Journal and the Pennsylvania College English Association.
His collections include The Blackbird’s Applause, Grass Saxophones, Golden Carp, and Chinese Bats. Forthcoming are American Zen and Blackberry Alleys: Collected Poems and Prose. He can be reached at ajv2@psu.edu.