NaNaw was her name,

but Daddy always called her

a stubborn old Goat.

A January baby,

he swears I’m a hardhead too.

(A tanka is a five-line poem with a syllable count of 5/7/5/7/7. Interesting fact: both my maternal and paternal grandmothers were born on the same date — January 20 — although several years separated them. My paternal great-grandmother, my NaNaw Bea, was also a Capricorn, And me, I am a hardheaded Goat as well, born the first week of January.)