Dust-colored cicadas emerge yearly from internment. They forgo the theatrics of broods and the acoustic one-upmanship of their cousins in other parts of the country. They make just four or five clicks at a time—like the tut-tut sound made by the blade of the tongue on the backside of the front teeth. This phrase is long enough for lovers to find each other, but not so long that predators can triangulate their whereabouts.

no grand gestures
among the redwoods
in deep shade
your whisper is all
that’s necessary

Cherie Hunter Day

lives in northern California among seventeen thirsty redwoods. Her short prose and poems have appeared in 100 Word Story, KYSO Flash, Mid-American Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Modern Haiku, Moon City Review, Quarter After Eight, SmokeLong Quarterly, Unbroken, and Wigleaf. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and widely anthologized.

Recent anthologies include Nothing Short of 100 (Outpost 19, 2018), NOON: An Anthology of Short Poems (Isobar Press, 2019), and Contemporary Haibun 17 (Red Moon Press, 2022). Her recent books include a prose poem e-chapbook, Qualia (White Knuckle Press, 2017), and an award-winning collection of short poetry, for Want (Ornithopter Press, 2017). She is an associate editor for The Heron’s Nest.

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⚡ 42R Mill Street, haibun by Cherie Hunter Day which was nominated by MacQ for the Red Moon Anthologies, and selected for publication in Contemporary Haibun 17 (Red Moon Press, 2022).