our first year in 
and Nature still sends us 
its idea of housewarming gifts, 
insects of all sizes 
and fear factors 

still, we are grateful 
as crawly things share their world 
and then we rescue ourselves 
with help from a handy cup 
so critters, too, can relocate 

you know, it’s not every night 
one can sleep with a scorpion 
and here, too, kindness counts, 
just as it does with neighbors 
we’ll never be friends with 

Peter Jastermsky

is an award-winning cherita poet, a Best of the Net and Dwarf Star nominee, and the author of six books of haiku-based writing. Titles include Steel Cut Moon (Cholla Needles Press, 2019), and two from Yavanika Press, No Velcro Here (2019) and The Silence We Came For (2020). His short-form writing has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Failed Haiku, Haibun Today, KYSO Flash, MacQueen’s Quinterly, The Aurorean, and The Cherita.

In 2017, Peter invented a new linked form that is haiku-centered called “split sequence.” His most recent book, Just Dust and Stone (Velvet Dusk Publishing, May 2021), is a collection of collaborative split sequences co-written with Bryan Rickert.

Peter lives with his family in the high desert of southern California.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

Here in MacQ-9:

⚡ Love Thing, a split sequence by Peter Jastermsky