Western Massachusetts, US, March 2021

 

1- One of the changes with the COVID Pandemic is working from home – all the time.  As Winter settled in there was a new oddity, a questioning of one’s actions.  That is where this haiku comes from as I was shoveling the snow from the driveway while the birds by the feeder watched … I could sense their questioning to… why are you working so hard to keep the driveway clear?

Crystalline breath
shoveling as if
there was somewhere to go

 

2- New to our family was everyone being home, day after day, after day.  Our weekends blurred into weekdays and vice versa.  We lived the ‘9 to 5’ type structure pre-COVID. That structure is gone now as there is no division between commute and work, lunch and work, work and home.  We are all adapting still…  even the pets.

Rising, setting
setting, rising
here we are again

 

3- A consistent message we are seeing in the news and from friends is how children have been affected by schooling from home.  Some well-performing students have fallen into struggling students and some struggling students have excelled. It is a dilemma. We are living that challenge now. It is as if things have been inverted.

What was up is now down
flip flopped, flop flipped
the world is no longer round

 

 

Mike Perusse is a part-time amateur artist from Western Massachusetts. His current focus has been writing haiku, illustrating a personal project, and building garden sculptures.

Ethereal distance
blackness beckoning
elusive armature, waits