Summers to Remember

dVerse's Haibun Monday: "A Life on Mars" Tribute 

Write a haibun that alludes to the themes of the excerpts from Tracy K. Smith’s “Life on Mars.”

Tina says what if dark matter is like the space between people
When what holds them together isn’t exactly love, and I think
That sounds right—how strong the pull can be, as if something
That knows better won’t let you drift apart so easily, and how
Small and heavy you feel, stuck there spinning in space.

           Tracy K. Smith, “Life on Mars” Graywolf Press, 2011, p. 37

One of my brothers died around this time last year, although we didn’t find out until late autumn. My remaining brother and I don’t know exactly when he died. No one does. We can only go by the date on the death certificate. We know he died at home, but don’t know who found him, or how long he’d been gone by then. He lived alone, and lived a lonely life. He’d alienated himself from the rest of our family over the years with imagined slights and misremembered wrongs.  The grudges fed with alcohol, fueling long drunken nights of rambling wee morning hour emails we ignored.  

I think Tina got it wrong. That space between us? One unremarkable day at a time it widens until we wake up, look around and realize we are “heavy” and “small,” and “stuck there spinning in space,” alone.

I choose to recall

summers by the foggy coast

scent of salt and pine

tide pools and sea gulls

calling, sandy olive shells

not what came later

©2026 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved