receding

but always returning
the way of grief

punctuating the mornings
these swells
from unexpected tears

beneath the white pine

a peregrine
has done its job

the black feather
plucked by a child
for safekeeping

Peter Jastermsky’s

haiku and senryu have appeared in Under the Basho, Failed Haiku, and Hedgerow, among other journals, and his haibun have been published in Contemporary Haibun Online, Haibun Today, and KYSO Flash. He works as a Licensed Counselor in Southern California, where he lives with his family and their cat and horse.

Publisher’s Note: For information about cherita, including resource links, see To the Lighthouse: Cherita, A Haiku/Tanka Inspired Form by Chen-ou Liu in his blog, NeverEndingStory (5 August 2014), the world’s first English-Chinese haiku and tanka blog.