i wrote this yesterday

near the power line

a pine's latent ornaments

hint of autumn's cones

an aged squirrel makes due

on last year's mouldering seeds

it isn't really my style

it came to me while in the park

i used to read japanese

and chinese poetry

lots of senryu tankas haiku

lots of han shan and bashō

now, i ramble, counting syllables

is counter to the rambling

though i often count lines

fourteen being my default

this tanka appeared with the pine

and squirrel, now that i read it

if feels stilted, but it does express

what i was seeing at the time