The yellowjacket population has grown steadily for weeks. This mounting threat occupies an unused portion of a mole tunnel at the base of a redwood tree. There might be something admirable in all this industry but the yellowjacket’s aggressive behavior cancels that allowance. They’re an annoyance, terrorizing even the wild honey bee hive. We plot ways to shut down this underground dormitory and learn that the best time to hit the nest is after dark—after all the occupants return and quiet down. Little do we realize, there’s another animal watching and waiting for the right moment. Nothing in summer is buttoned down. On the night of what we believe is of our choosing, we arm ourselves with a wasp bomb and grab the flashlight. This is also the night a skunk exercises its aptitude. We bolt for the house at the first sight of black and white. By morning the entire nest, all five tiers, is excavated and scraped clean. Not a single survivor is among the gray papers of this eviction.

hunger
one answer
to prayer

Cherie Hunter Day

lives in northern California among seventeen thirsty redwoods. Her short prose and poems have appeared in 100 Word Story, KYSO Flash, Mid-American Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Modern Haiku, Moon City Review, Quarter After Eight, SmokeLong Quarterly, Unbroken, and Wigleaf. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and widely anthologized.

Recent anthologies include Nothing Short of 100 (Outpost 19, 2018), NOON: An Anthology of Short Poems (Isobar Press, 2019), and Contemporary Haibun 17 (Red Moon Press, 2022). Her recent books include a prose poem e-chapbook, Qualia (White Knuckle Press, 2017), and an award-winning collection of short poetry, for Want (Ornithopter Press, 2017). She is an associate editor for The Heron’s Nest.

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⚡ 42R Mill Street, haibun by Cherie Hunter Day which was nominated by MacQ for the Red Moon Anthologies, and selected for publication in Contemporary Haibun 17 (Red Moon Press, 2022).