A.Y. Tanaka is a poet who lives in Kealakekua, Hawaii. Dark Planet is designed and edited by Lucy A. Snyder. If you spot any errors, or if you have any comments, please contact her at lusnyde@cyberus.ca. All materials copyright 1996-1998 by their respective creators. No stories, articles, poems or images from this webzine may be posted or published without the written consent of their creator(s).

Few by A.Y. Tanaka I'd learned the hard way a-b-c's are taught, hence easy to forget or half-forget but numbers mew and stammer in our blood. Half-skunked, you'll count successfully at least to eighty-three. You don't -- not because you can't. My pulse revives when I'm reminded two and two make four, reminds me why I'm here, agrees to what I've always guessed about the world and why it's home. Among the Few, who come to market in the rain, but rarely, kw' is "one"; their second kw' a gasp that says "too much." Perplexed mission-folk write home: "They're quite (God's truth) incapable of counting further." Incorrect. They can -- they wisely don't, except when waiting lonely for the dawn, confirming what they've always known about the world and why it's home.