May 2020
The COVID-19 Pandemic storms through large cities—careens down main street in villages and towns. It wants to move in with the family on the corner, to claim the grandfather and his son who works in the meat-processing plant. On Park Street it takes the child of five, and her mother, a nurse. Grief sows the garden, sits on the empty swing and on the side rails of the slide, where the child’s hands held on. We sit under the willow weeping,. The robin seems not to notice the changes, yet he misses the nuts the white-haired man always put in the feeder. He calls his “cheer-up” call but the man does not part the lace curtain to look out, does not sit on the porch in the rocker that squeaks, does not walk down the drive with his cane, to get the mail. The man does not look at the nest, built alongside his bedroom window . . . built where he could see it. We sit under the willow weeping. The willow is just coming into spring, at sunset the blackbird’s red wing still flashes. Hospitals order more body bags, freezer trucks hold the dead. It is a time to lock memories deep into the chambers of the heart, the ache of memories stitched to another time, nothing is the same as before. Nothing is the same as before. I know not how to proceed other than to write another poem. The willow weeps. Copyright 2020 Janet Leahy
Bio:
Janet is a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. She has published two collections of poetry and is working on a new book of witness poems. She lives in New Berlin, Wi.
Donation Appeal:
Throughout June and July, we will be presenting on this web site work by poets and artists responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope you will find these works relevant, comforting and inspiring as we all cope with the economic and health-related fallout.
As you view the work on this site each day, we would like to encourage you to donate to the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC). Their mission “ is to feed our neighbors in need by providing dignified access to supplemental groceries. AFAC is seeing a record number of families due to the COVID-19 pandemic as families who never thought they would ever be in need are now showing up at our doors for much needed food.” And, in keeping with our hunger-focused efforts, you may also want to visit the Poetry X Hunger website where poems by many poets are posted and are being used by anti-hunger organizations.”
Throughout June and July, we will be presenting on this web site work by poets and artists responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope you will find these works relevant, comforting and inspiring as we all cope with the economic and health-related fallout.
Please consider donating to AFAC. If you do, let us know which poet or artist inspired you so we can send you a personal thank you.
Wow!