Sunday, March 29, 2020

Early Child Education

The baby is the hardest part;
I can do nothing any day
But she (and know, this breaks my heart)
As much as I adore to play
Had simply too much energy
And mopes too much when it is spent.
I never meant myself to be
Although I did mean to parent
A stay at home, forever there
Kind of father; she and I
Do better in a burst of care
Than in the grind. But I will try:
It's not my wife's job either. So
In quarantine, that's how things go.

Friday, March 27, 2020

Pandemic

These are the hardest weeks
Until the next come through;
We hope the crisis peaks
But it ascends anew.
Each time we think the worst
Has finally arrived
We find it was the first
Of something longer-lived.
Our very struggle seems
A useless intervention
Like running hard in dreams:
Despite our best intention
Whatever we achieve
The crisis will not leave.

Thursday, March 26, 2020

A Form of Social Distance

COVID is an existential threat
To other people. Now I do not mean
I couldn't die. But it will not upset
My way of life as well as my routine
Unless I do, or someone near to me.
I have a house that I can pay for; food
Stored up; some savings; job security.
So all the terror somehow is imbued
With surreal colors, like a late Monet.
I do not go outside. I eat. I sleep.
Existence wanders on from day to day
Despite the quarantine. I rarely weep.
This quarantine may threaten many lives
But warm and sheltered, privilege still thrives.

Monday, March 23, 2020

Social Distancing

Back when the West was won, we huddled close
In sod huts bent against the endless breeze.
Our families were enough; they could engross
All our attention, and they could appease
Our every need. The older taught the young,
The parents handed down what they had learned,
And everything was good enough among
The growing family as the seasons turned.
In those days farms were few and far between.
A neighbor was a good ways down the road--
So, often spoke of, and yet seldom seen--
And strangers never troubled each abode.
But if we won the West, wasn't the point
To not live thus? The time is out of joint.

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Caution

Imagine this without the Internet,
Sans telephones, sans everything we use
To stay connected, stave off boredom, set
A limit to the impact of the news
(As well as hear the news itself, of course).
Imagine doing this alone. And then
Remember medicine. Conceive the force
With which plagues hit, and glorify again
The depth of what we've faced. Do not pretend
The world was isolated in the past:
Ships sailed, roads ran from end to end
Of continents. They died. But we can last
If we embrace what we have learned and made
(Though even so we ought to be afraid).

Friday, March 13, 2020

Quarantine

Overreaction now would be ideal;
We would like nothing more than to be told,
Some days or months from now, that many feel
We didn't need to do this. If the old,
The ill, and the infirm are to survive
We need to be aggressive. We may look
Like fools, but know: if they are still alive
It's worth it, even if you think we took
Precautions that weren't needed. We can't know
Until the end what ought to have been done;
All that we can do is try to slow
Progression. And you can't please everyone.
The chance of saving lives must matter more
Than anything, and that's what this is for.

Monday, March 9, 2020

Consideration

The patience you have shown with me
Exceeds the bounds of expectation.
To do so so consistently
Would draw me to infatuation
Were we not, by good luck or sense,
Already bound by deeper ties;
I love you not as consequence
But as a bedrock truth that lies
Down at the core of my foundation.
And so your patience is, I find,
A blessing past remuneration.
In this, as all things, I'm resigned
To be a debtor since, you know,
You own all I could ever owe.

Sunday, March 1, 2020

February

The longest month I'll ever see
(Though shorter than its neighbors are)
Has finally time enough to be:
To stretch itself into the far
Corners of an extra day;
To shake the snow from off its feet
And dance the doldrums all away
While ice and cold go in retreat.
Strange that the longest should be so
Atypical, and yet it seems
Appropriate for it to go
Buckwild. February dreams
Like others do, and so it tries
Other weathers on for size.