War Zone tanka sequence

dancing boys
of Afghanistan
lift the air--
on my notebook
watercolors splash like tears

the first time
I went hungry
father tossed my food--
I carved the stone
of starvation with water

I was twelve
when father sold me
to a warlord …
you cannot read loss
only feel it*

a broken heart
never fully heals 
yet my universe
will not turn 
into a mighty stranger*

*from Memoirs of a Geisha
*from  Wuthering Heights