Stephanie L. Harper: A Crown Most Unroyal
Some humans really don’t object to dying
as much as they hold dear an asshat’s right
to choose to spread disease over complying
Michelle D. Holmes, MD, DRPH: The Folly of School Openings as a Zero-Sum Game
We need to address the needs of students—and parents, and teachers. One size does not fit all, and race complicates the challenge.
Michelle Bitting: Pandemic Mask Sonnet
The world’s gone mad at the wheel
While bees and seas soar for bloom, germs and chaos
Straining against reorder.
Paul Christensen: What Isolation Teaches Us
The magpies have all packed up and left with the last straggling tourists. I don’t hear their falsetto cries anymore, and I miss them. I love to see two such … Continue reading
Christopher Bursk: The Plague in Early Spring
The first week in the first year of the plague,
when we told ourselves there was no plague,
the flowers were more than willing
to confirm our opinion.
Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Complaint About Missing Friends after Ten Months of the Pandemic
Verlaine threw pail after pail after
cold water pail on the gravel under Rimbaud’s
windows, to cool the air as he slept.
Christopher Bursk: Nor are we fit to force our way across
when I was a child
I wanted with all my heart to be the one
to suffer
Video: Soul Of The City
The owners of six small ethnic restaurants in New York City show how they’re coming back with the help of their communities after the Covid shutdown.
Sharon Fagan McDermott: The Summer of Nectarines
Plague on the winds, in the air,
on our tongues in the midst of old conversations.
Molly Fisk: You and I
the whole country snarled into such a hot mess
you wouldn’t recognize democracy if she
removed her skirts and danced on your lap for free,
pretending to like you.
Derrick Z. Jackson: Systemic Racism Continues to Plague Pandemic Response
The chaotic roll-out of the vaccines has meant that people with access to the internet, reliable transportation and flexible hours have a much easier time getting vaccinated.
Naomi Shihab Nye & Michael Simms: Writing Prompt # 6 | Dear Vaccine
As we enter our new lives
will we remember
the faster we moved
the sicker we got?
Rachel Hadas: Holding on to hope is hard, even with the pandemic’s end in sight – wisdom from poets through the ages
As we begin to glimpse what might be the beginning of the end of the pandemic, what does hope mean? It’s hard not to sense the presence of hope, but how do we think of it?
Owen Hughes: Vaccination
After the shots
Not a fever
No side effect
Except this pause
