Don’t get me wrong
The corona virus is
making its way through the world
with its own fury
at night I lay awake
and shudder about
all the suffering
my daughter keeps coughing
and I don’t settle into sleep until dawn
but there is something else happening
behind the scenes
a friend you haven’t heard from in a while
reaches out and asks if you are okay
people smile at the grocery store
while not touching
Baseball games and concerts are cancelled
but the poets still write
I watch the same movie four times
with my grandson
we stay in more
remember a long-ago vacation
and make popcorn with real butter
we enjoy every morsel of pancakes
and a sandwich with the crust cut off
The virus
how long will it stay with us
how long will we remain
both distant
and isolated
while the earth
shows us the way
Connie Post served as Poet Laureate of Livermore, California (2005 to 2009). Her work has appeared in Calyx, One, River Styx, Slipstream, Spoon River Poetry Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, The Slippery Elm, The Pedestal Magazine, and Verse Daily. Her Awards include the 2018 Liakoura Award the 2016 Crab Creek Review Poetry Award and the Caesura award. Her first full length Book, Floodwater, won the Lyrebird Award. Her second full length book, Prime Meridian, was released January 3, 2020; both published by Glass Lyre Press.
califragile.org 