Lynn Ungar: Pandemic
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Stephen Dobyns: Scale
After that, he spots
specks of lint, dust motes that grow with his attention
so huge they change into solar systems with planets
where he might see cities, rooftops and, who knows,
even a man mowing a his lawn, if he had the time.
Yana Djin: Tender are the nights
Tender are the nights spent in a haze.
Stone-cold the days. Sharp-cut.
In this city that reflects the rays
against its windows — constantly shut.
Chard deNiord: Last Goodbye in the Time of Corona
The darkness arrived without your voice
or touch, my love, and yet I heard
your voice and felt your hand in mine.
Francesca Bell: Taking Stock
There will be strawberries
and hand grenades
and the feeling
in my belly
when your touch
explodes me.
Audio: “Invictus” recited by Morgan Freeman
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
Leslie Anne Mcilroy: Zoosk | The Pandemic
We stay put, apart,
constant in longing. And that is all
fine, my friends, except the dying
part. Death all around love’s
little sprouting head.
Deena November: Social Distance Pro
I create ambitious color coded schedules for
my hyper children during a pandemic but they are jumping in puddles, tracking mud all over the house and eating popcorn off the living room rug.
Corona's Jaws: An Anthology of Poetry
Poems by Cynthia Atkins, Jose Alcantara, Judith Alexander Brice, Michael T. Young, Sydney Lea, Charlie Brice, John Samuel Tieman, and Adrian Rice.
Christine Rhein: Panic
Because it’s too late now
to sound the alarm
over the lack of alarm,
over the sudden
wealth of it.
Ellen McGrath Smith: March 22, 2020
As it is, we’re quarantined in cages,
rooms, apartments, city houses, ranches
in the suburbs, the further out you go
the more chance to forget, to forgo
every caution you’ve ever not taken.
What did you bring to the world?
You don’t have many days to stay, traveler.
Michael Simms: Black Brick, Yellow Brick
I will die in Pittsburgh on a beautiful day…
