Lantana roots, too long for the green planter on our back porch can’t stretch deeply, so they double back on themselves, the flowers losing vibrancy each day in this quarantine May. When my husband tries to save the plant by pulling the roots back up out of the dirt, cutting off part, their tiny pink petals drop off days later, their leaves wither around the edges. Like the lantana, we’re also kept in our houses, our worlds shrinking day by day. We may also send shoots down into this soil, but we cannot be cut and re-planted, placed in new window boxes to wait out this virus. For out there, sickness lurks and maybe too, death. Our roots are better off left alone, doubling back, our flowers too big for our pots. © 2020 Kathy Cable Smaltz
Bio:
Kathy Cable Smaltz resides in Prince William County, VA and served as PWC Poet Laureate from 2016-2018. Her work has been published in numerous journals, and her first poetry collection, Pieces, was released in September 2019. She is a fellow with the VCCA and loves spending time outdoors with her family.
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.
