Kimiko Hahn

Red Car in the Future

                                       after Sei Shonagon

Dinner with daughters: lobster and martinis all around.

A Beetle. In fact, let’s make it a convertible as long as this is my fantasy.

A Norwich Terrier that Harold will name Trudy. From King Of Prussia. Ha!

The daily walks Harold and I will take in Prospect Park with Trudy. Especially in the spring when the grass is a couple inches high and she has to sort of bunny-hop along. And there are bird calls and woodpeckers pecking and their pecking echoing across the meadow. A few Labs splashing in the pond. Owners chatting to one another instead of on some Blackberry. Chatting about their dogs. Enjoying the single topic of dogginess. Such a pleasure at any age but particularly for those in later years and the dogs are a kind of tonic — as Meg would say.

A trip to Kyoto while Trudy is with either Miya or Rei.

A trip to Maui with Miya and Rei.

And Tomie.

What would my mother have desired? I wish I knew. Maybe a bit of solitude — or a new house. Daughters taking her out for lobster –? (No martinis for Maude!)

Seriously — news that isn’t filled with men forcing themselves on women. That
would be truly refreshing.

Machu Pichu with Harold.

If not a Beetle, a Mustang. Yeah. Okay. Some things don’t change much after all.

Speaking of which — yes, diamond studs.

(But no, not studs.)

In a pinch, a dozen red roses will do.

Kimiko Hahn is the author of eight collections of poetry — most recently, Toxic Flora. She teaches at Queens College, CUNY, in the MFA Program for Creative Writing and Literary Translation.