We need to rethink everything and then get back to work ... 

Two months ago her bar closed down.

She slides the ring across the counter

“How much? It’s a real diamond.

Got it before that bastard left

Back when he still held my hand.”

Patting her ass

When this is my only asset

You’ll give no more than

Ten cents on the dollar

Hardly enough for a good meal

.

I’m moving in with a guy down the road

Corse, it is still up in the air

I've  no aces to play

And all the options of the have-nots.

The guy agrees it will be better

Only one rent left unpaid.

Perhaps I will get a pizza with this pile of cash

See how it goes with the old fart

And his potbelly dog

He has two bedrooms

And a single TV.

Of course, it could be the other way

The other way around.

He talks about gettin wireless soon

And knows where they serve lunch

In a Methodist church.

On Tuesday afternoon.

All my clothes in a few brown bags

In the middle of an empty kitchen

Leaving behind my pots

Cause he has enough

And doesn’t want his stuff getting mixed up with mine.

I’ll let the old cat out

He came with the house

the old man says his dog

Will not abide by the old puss.

She shakes the knob

And stares back through a window

At what is home no more

And glances at the keys on the counter

And remembers the cat’s milk

In the fridge door.

She walks away, arms full, head down,

Leaving behind her only real friend

Her neighbors all sheltered in place

With even their pets safe inside.

Roe

April 2020

Two months ago her bar closed down.

She slides the ring across the counter

“How much? It’s a real diamond.

Got it before that bastard left

Back when he still held my hand.”

When jobs and food stamps can’t be had

You’ll give no more than

Ten cents on the dollar

Hardly enough for a good meal

Patting her ass

When this my only asset.

I’m moving in with a guy down the road

Corse, it is still up in the air

I've  no aces to play

And all the options of a have-nots.

The guy agrees it will be better

Only one rent left unpaid.

Perhaps I will get a pizza with pile of cash

See how it goes with the old fart

And his snarling dog

He has two bedrooms

And a single TV.

Of course, it could be the other way

The other way around.

He talks about gettin wireless soon

And knows where they serve lunch

In a Methodist church.

On Tuesday afternoon.

All my clothes in a few brown bags

In the middle of an empty kitchen

Leaving behind my pots

Cause he has enough

And doesn’t want his stuff getting mixed up.

I’ll let the old cat out

He came with the house

the old man says his dog

Will not abide by the old puss.

She shakes the knob to see it’s locked

And stares back through a window

At what is home no more

And glances at the keys on the counter

And remembers the cat’s milk

In the fridge door.

She walks away, arms full, head down,

Leaving behind her only real friend

Her neighbors all sheltered in place

With even their pets safe inside.

Roe

April 2020

Some short poems from poets all over the U.S. trying to find the silver lining in the coronavirus pandemic.

After the dozen or so poems, there is a discussion about the aversion we felt in finding the silver-lining.  Some good people being open and accepting of people different than themselves.

We are planning an online poetry reading.  Do you want to be a part of it now or in the future?  We are at the planning stage.  Send a note to [email protected] and Traci and/or I and/or Rebekah will introduce ourselves to you and get you involved.  You don't need to be good, you just need to be a poetry lover.   Details to be figured out. 

#ancientTexan, #poetree, #poetry, #zoompoetry

Taiwan is right next to China and they have had three deaths from the Coronavirus.  They have a system that works better than any other country in the world.

The black ghost of the virus is visiting America.  We are afraid, outraged, insulted, bothered, inconvenienced, but not yet humble. The routine of our life has been disturbed.  Our rights as free and superior people have been disturbed.   We are too good to have to put up with this forced caring of others.  Altering our lives so others will not get sick and die.  That is just too much.  We are Americans.  We are superior. 

How long do we have to put up with this may morph for us into how precious our lives have been.  How sheltered, how unique, how much of an exception we have enjoyed.  In the scheme of things, this is a baby pandemic.  There are bird-flu viruses that kill 60% of their hosts.   Ek!!  There are poor people drinking water around the world that kills many children with diseases like cholera that are preventable.  But those people are not "the chosen".  They are not valuable.  They live on the wrong side of a border, a boundary made by humans arbitrarily to mark their own superiority. 

Inside our own country, we find we have no way to send everyone money or aid of any kind.  We have no way to give a poor person without insurance a test to see if they have the virus.  We send them back into the hordes to keep the virus alive.   We have no way to care for the prisoners crowded into jail and prison cells.  Let the guards perish.   We have no desire to help the immigrants gathering at the border with their children and dreams. 

We are not really set up to see individuals, their needs, their strengths, their individual humanity.  Will this pandemic help us to see the weak or will it take a much bigger pandemic for us to see the interconnected web of life that supports us all?  Will we see that we are part of a fragile web of life that holds all of us in a precious, temporary bubble of mutual dependencies.