When the dust settled, no one ever knew if Annie was bringing in Bad Jack, or if Bad Jack was taking Annie for a long walk to the desert’s end. The shadows kept quiet, as shadows do, vanishing into the dusk without a trace, keeping the secrets that lay buried under the windblown sand, close to the vest, like Aces and eights. Graves, marked by the occasional saguaro, where iguana stare glassy eyed into the blinding, blistering hot sun, waiting patiently for a sandfly or dragonfly to happen by, punctuate the dead silence, as the wind whistles past whipping up eddies of centuries old sand. Even the Bad Jack Wanted posters are no more than shadows of the man, a face masked in jet black stubble and sun-scorched skin, with lines and creases deep as a scrub-covered ravine.

waking to the sound 
of a throaty chortle 
Annie lies heavy on the cot 
“be still, sora mea,” she said 
“you’ve been shot” 

in her delirious state 
she calls, “Sable, Sable” 
adjusting to her pain 
inside her burning dream 
she’s lost her reckoned claim 

the last she recollects 
sojourned at the gypsy camp, 
“my name is Tala Rosalee,” 
she said, “you and your mare 
were all but dead”

—From Shadows of the Saguaro: The Wiles of Cactus Annie May and Bad Jack Muldoon, a series of responsive tanka tales by Lester and Miko

Michael H. Lester

is a CPA, attorney, and poet who lives in Los Angeles, California. His writing has been widely published in prestigious poetry journals, has been translated into several languages, and has won numerous awards worldwide. Michael’s recent publications include two illustrated children’s books, Cassandra and the Strange Tale of the Blue-Footed Boobies and Johnny and Frankie’s Summer Sleepover, as well as a book of poetry, Notes from a Commode: Volume I. A fourth book, The Squeeping Catterwhip, is now available on Amazon.

Vicki Miko

is a retired television producer. She is a widely published poet in the haiku and tanka communities. Her illustrations have been featured in Billboard Magazine and displayed on Nagle Outdoor billboards. She was nominated for the McKnight Foundation Art Award for creating gardening workbooks for the JD Rivers’ Children’s Garden in Minneapolis. She lives in Southern California with her humoring husband.

Author’s website: http://www.vickimiko.com/