A Day in Quarantine

A day in quarantine,
With the echo of the busy birds chirping in the distance,
And the cars racing by,
Leaving no traces.

A day in quarantine,
Drags on and on,
The sun welcomes me,
As I start my daily run.

A day in quarantine,
I see the once active streets no longer,
Silence covers the street,
The closed businesses sit.

A day in quarantine,
A constant reminder,
That now more than ever,
We all play a role.

Conclusions in Quarantine

Bright, unyielding weeds
thrive and persist through hardship
but I’m more the cloud
flailing through the turbulence,
waiting to embrace the ground.

Better Days

the sun is beaming
takes a stance on our bodies
Before going wild,
I remember the freedom
we used to take for granted.

At Wits’ End

Smooth sailing
I glide through the ever so easy month of March
Peaceful, steady, focused
Utter silence… broken like a wine glass
From the television
Canceled, Closed, Delayed
Sinful words to me
I long for the day when these words are revoked
Removed from everyone’s mouth
Like deciduous teeth

A Craft?

Was a hot glue gun
A pillowcase, rulers too
We were making masks
Yes, strange but everyone was
What a time to be alive

Society from a Clear Window

Peering out the glass
Guarded with trees and grass
The rain is pelting
Our world is melting
Stay inside for everyone.

The Masked Man

Encased in rich grief
He wanders the neighborhood
Cloth over the mouth
And hands submerged in latex
A demoralizing scene.

Isolated

Ivy sprouts from the
soil embedded in test tubes
where newborns emerge
their reflection in the window
reminds me of how life was.

"No Place like Home"
Inspired by “Social Distancing” by Juan Felipe Herrera

Panic.
I’m cemented.
Never feeling fully stocked.
Running out of the essentials to survive.
Fearing what will happen if you step foot outside.
The unknown of when you will be able to see your friends.
Home is where the heart is, but now home is where staying alive is.
The only thing that make you smile is thinking of the past.
Your college town you love so much is now unattainable.
The walls of your room are shrinking smaller and smaller.
You somehow miss the absolutely awful dining hall food.
The journey to and from the kitchen seems like a lifetime.
Your friends across the country are light-years away now.
The only thing keeping you going is being able to go back.
Home is where the heart is, but my heart is far away from home now.

Today I will make another to-do list.

I download TikTok instead of doing my work.
A pile of emails builds up in my inbox.
The coffee shop where I work makes me come in for a shift
not enforcing any precautionary measures.

The CDC can’t make up their mind about face masks –
The bloggers I follow are still telling people to use essential oils.
Sometimes I think I have a fever knowing our thermometer may not work.
I probably don’t have a fever; I make my husband check anyway.

I watch all eight seasons of Game of Thrones in 12 days.
When Game of Thrones ends. I feel less like I want to get out of bed.
Getting restless, staring at walls,
I can’t fall asleep without Benadryl.

I go on a bike ride and see too many people.
Biking home in a hurry, the air rustles my shirt.
Watching Tik Tok videos, thoughts of reading a book emerge –
I do not read a book.

I place a teddy bear in the front window because
families are playing a game.
My husband plants lettuce, cabbage,
peppers and beans in our Spring garden.

I make muffins, and cookies, and sheet cake, and focaccia, and sheet cake again.
Wondering if I should reorganize the office, I decide I will add it to my list.
I keep a running tab of to-do lists now
knowing that the tasks will go uncompleted.

I say, “maybe tomorrow” and slump toward the kitchen.
My slippers pfft against the ground as I go.
I poke my head through the doorway.
Seeing a pile of dishes mounting in the sink, I turn.

Jordan Honeyblue
Fozen in stills

Make Me a Bird

mornings on the porch;
I breathe in the birds’ songs and
the normalcy of spring.
to birds, the world is the same;
oh, how I envy the birds.