Three Edinburgh Tanka

Hard spring —

still cherry blossoms

froth over 

the bombmaker’s 

snarls of razor-wire 

#

From up beneath the eaves

a pair of housemartins

peeps out, drops 

to vaulting 

sun 

#

Fat moon 

falls unloved 

between 

office buildings — 

night train passing

James Roderick Burns’ fifth collection, Crows at Dusk, was published by Red Moon Press in 2023.  He is a Reader in Poetry for Ploughshares and Co-editor/Tanka editor of Presence, the UK’s leading haiku journal.