Fragile
[boxes]
Bounded up
De-coupling—
Social
Distancing—
Uncomfortable
Pauses
As to what
Qualifies
As normal.
Needing
Canned
Laughter
for
Comfort
Food.
Categories
Canned Goods
Categories
Notes on Canned Goods
I initially started the writing that led to this poem by looking into the actual words that were used.
Fragility — the human condition is exorbitantly weak. We really don’t like that fact.
Boxes — Maria Kondo – put your life into neat little bento boxes— tidy up your life
Mental Boxes — when our emotional chaos is present, we work hard to categorize our responses. Tidy up our minds — but that is usually mental space filled with work and future planning. Very tidy, our future, in our minds, until plans are disrupted by social crisis.
De-coupling — Social Distancing breeds anxiety -especially for extroverts- by hallowing our our group response. When all of a sudden you take away the immediate, physically present, response that we have by being in the same room or the same table — when canned laughter is absent you realize that fake laughter that connects you is better than watching comedy dead pan. A comedian of one is not really that funny. We require social interactivity.
And a news conversation that has to wait for delayed interactions, stops people from answering naturally and responding fluidly.
Yearning
Clamshells
Open slow
With a
Lazy
Yawning
Frond
Unwound
Reaching
Tendrils
Unfurled
Revealing
Future
Colors
Of long
Summer’s Day.
Delicate
The flower
That is man
With age a
Drying crease
Wrinkles cross
Exposing
A grand
Fragility —
A few days
Without more
Water and
Severe
Consequences
Will prevail —
Never to
Hold the same
Shape again
The vase —
Retainer of
remainders
The days count-
ed by fall-
en petals
Beautiful
Unto the
Very last
Though fragrance
Gone and all
Glory past
What remains
Is the same
Shadow’s cast
Through the light
On the sill
Calm and still.
“We want to be
More than the tree.
A melody
For you
We sing and sing
Always hoping
Your Love to ring
As true…
Please, please sing back!
Tell where you’re at —
Let our song
Be for two.”
Lockdown
Quarantine
“Keep the door shut.”
Practice
“Social distancing”
Do not touch!
Wash your
Hands for
Twenty seconds
Swab and
Daub and Wipe
down surfaces!
Don’t forget
Don’t touch
Your Faces!
Though we
Won’t need
No toilet paper
For one
Or two
Weeks more
It doesn’t
really matter
‘Cause there’s none left
At
The
Store
A bird
A bird
A bird has rhythm
Listen
Listen
Listen closely — To hear
If you
If you
Listen closely
A whole
New Lang-
uage will appear
Repeat
Repeat
The melody
The beat
The beat
Is very clear
The words
The words
These Words may not matter
The music
The music
Is more than a mirror
She was
A sweet
A sweet blue bird
Named “Happy”
She would even
let you hold her
Her Eggs
Were aquamarine
With golden yolks
American
Ameraucana
“The Easter Egger”
Though she
Stopped producing
Early in life
She was
Well regarded
By the Garden Club.
RIP
Tic tic
Says the clock
As it counts off your day
“Where
have you been?” He says,
“Happy has passed away…”
Dirty work
This garden farm
On any good day, not much harm
‘Cept for
The mice
Who’ve come to barn
But today
You know —
Was different too
It was
The day…
That Happy died—
I need a break —
I need a break
I need a break from me
I’m swimming in
I’m breathing in
“I’m drowning,” sincerely
— John Doe —
I’ve stripped away
Prosperity
I’ve drunken down my past
I’ve left myself
No other choice
Lest this day be my last
In my head
You’re in my head
You know I see you there…
“Take a deep breath
Take a deep breath
Take in all of this air.
Make still your mind
Make whole your kind
Be what you think you should
Now let it in
Release your sin
And become what you never
Would
Gather yourself
And leave your things
It’s time to go on —Human—
Being”