My neighbor shows up at my door, all breathless. It’s been a long time since someone looked that excited to see me. “I feel like the world’s ending,” she says. “Nothing new,” I counter. “Is that why you came over?” “I was hoping you’d have a new joke, or at least some innuendo. But, today, I’m really feeling it,” says the neighbor. After some back and forth, paper beats rock but loses to scissors. Paper doesn’t stand a chance against scissors, and my neighbor went home, in pieces. But don’t worry, she’ll reconstitute. And that’s the damn shame of it. I moved to snow country, thinking I’d only have the silence to deal with. But there are always those people who can’t live on their own and they always seem to move next door. I’m no exception. I need someone to agitate. I didn’t have to move far. The last time she said she’d lost her marbles, but there they were, in my happy place. Not too many people would hold marbles hostage. But you never know how one will roll. People want to believe they’re getting a deal. I return her marbles in exchange for my bearings. Once I get a sense of relative position, I’m pretty quick on the ice.

Peter Jastermsky

A New England native, Peter Jastermsky lives in the high desert of Southern California. He is the author of eleven books of haiku-based work, and his writing has been featured in numerous journals and anthologies. In 2017, Peter invented a new linked form that is haiku-centered called a split sequence. His book Just Dust and Stone (Velvet Dusk Publishing, 2021) is a collection of collaborative split sequences, co-written with Bryan Rickert. Peter’s recent books include Where Days Begin: monoku (Cyberwit, 2023) and Into the Stillness (Red Moon Press, 2023), a collection of solo split sequences.

Author’s website: www.peterjastermsky.com

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ “Love Thing”: The Allure of the Split Sequence, an essay on process by Peter Jastermsky in Issue 9 of MacQ (August 2021)