Out of the corner of my eye, I see my coworker as he passes my cubicle. He’s wearing green army pants and carries a backpack. His first day back to work, probably the same old, same old. He’s on his way to the staff bathroom. I want to ask him about his two-week vacation in Thailand, but since I’m on the phone, that conversation will have to wait. I think it was the BOOM that scared me the most. That noise was not just someone slamming the bathroom door, or trashing the sink. It was not a cherry bomb in the toilet. This, after all, is a workplace. Suddenly, we’re told by the managers, anxious-looking, to go outside. Right now. I hesitate. Do I take my lunch with me or not? I feel so much better when my sugar level doesn’t drop. As my coworkers and I walk towards the exit, some of us look over our shoulders towards the bathroom. The door is wide open. The wall behind the toilet looks spattered with bright red. A police siren. The flapping of helicopter wings. The van from Action News. A manager joins us as we pile out into the noonday sun. Well, he says, that was John, all right.

Peter Jastermsky

is a New England native who 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 more than 40 collaborative split sequences, co-written with Bryan Rickert. Peter’s recent books include songs of blue acorns: monoku (Cyberwit, 2024), 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 MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 9, August 2021)