KIDS’ CAMP 2021 Required: Covid-19 negative certificates Shelters, bathing platforms, walking tracks Despite the promise, and necessary medicines, mistrust hovers Just imagine the hospital staff flipping head over shoulder while all the hopefuls have to stand in line for showers Kitchens, food courts, mobile toilets, incandescent flowers Everything from ample food and shelter to long walks — Story time that could go on for hours— Yet the mother wavers because… In the womb all babies could be merbabies and inside practiced phrases demons lurk Copyright 2021 Joan Dobbie
Auditor’s Statement:
The article I originally chose was one I’d cut out of the local newspaper in Pondicherry, India, where I was visitng in 2017, about a healing retreat for temple elephants. Since I didn’t have a URL for it, I found a more recent article about the same retreat in 2020. <https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chennai/tamil-nadu-48-day-retreat-for-temple-elephants-kicks-off-in-coimbatore-district-7180301/>The f 1st poem of mine is one I published on my own poetry site (blog, really) called “This a Song for Jessica”<http://joansthisasongtojessica.blogspot.com/> and the 2nd of my poems, called “Pandemic Politics” is as yet unpublished, so no URL there. As I put this poem together I discovered it was about the kind of ambiguity a modern parent might feel about sending their child off to summer camp in this time of covid-19 worry, confusion and distrust. All this,, of course, assuming there even will be summer camps already open in summer 2021. The ending couplet of the new poem is made up of the 1st line of the 1st poem and the last line of the 2nd poem.
Bio:
Joan Dobbie co-hosts the River Road Reading Series (RRRS) for now on Zoom. She has several poetry chapbooks and 2 full length poetry books under her belt. Her latest, “The Language of Stone” (Uttered Chaos Press, 2019) is available through the press itself or on Amazon. Her website is <joandobbie.blogspot.com>.
30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review
That last lines sealed the deal for me!
“inside practiced phrases demons lurk”
Very tasteful
I liked those last lines too. Very well done as Mary says.