11 February 2019 (wasp nest)

wasp nest in winter

my neighbors

how do they get by

This is an homage of sorts to Basho, who wrote the following haiku (as translated by Sam Hamill) that has stuck with me: 

In this late autumn,

my next-door neighbor— 

how does he get by? 

Here’s another translation of the same haiku, by Jane Reichhold, which demonstrates the variation among translators: 

autumn deepens

so what does he do

the man next door