Ides of April
These are fateful days
and grateful we venture out
from isolating shelter
masked, gloved and locked
into distancing patterns
once confined to ever-present
boundaries of social class
and a widening urban-rural divide
Grateful because
the hyacinth persists
spearing improbable colors
into this spring’s
unseasonable warmth
ignoring an absence of bees
Grateful because
it’s in the nature of the hyacinth
PSL for COVD-19
In times of great stress
things happen for a reason
one of which is
what doesn’t kill us
makes us stronger or
at the very least
hasn’t killed us yet so
while everything else
in our lives may be
going horribly wrong
it’s a good thing I can speak
Platitude as a second language.
Sheltering in Place
It was an indoors thank god
kind of day
when nothing much happened
in the outside world but it all
managed to explode in ours
And I know that in the
post-epidemic future
we’ll realize just how much
better it was that we were
forced to stay indoors
Otherwise I would have
packed a bag and fled
to a non-extradition country
—