April Poetry Challenge 2021: Day Four

 

Day 4 Prompt: Active

Form: Free Verse

"Easter 2021"

Easter morning

All the eggs have been found

Worship filled our souls

I’m out walking, trying to remove the age from my legs

It has been

A year since the world locked down

I notice some homes have

Out-of-state plates

While others have nothing but dark windows

How many stories have ended in the last 

356 days

How many lives 

began in those same thousands of hours

I feel the contradiction of this world

As the sun warms my face

With the promise of a new beginning

Yet, the breeze cools my neck with the memory of winter

Our stories are solid beneath our feet

But flow together like cirrus clouds in the sky above me

My name 

unknown to almost everyone

My title of father, though, has cemented generations to come

I don’t know 

If my neighbors see me reach my front step

As I open the front door

My family knows I’m home

Poetry Challenge Day 23: Social (blank)

Social Suicide

Love is

Holding hands while walking in the sunshine

But now they say

Keep      your      distance

Friendship is

Breaking bread around a table 

But now they say

No      eating      together

Parenting is

Exploring the world through experiences

But now they say

Closed      for      now

Life is

Sharing love and pain together

But now they say

Keep      your     distance

Keep            your            distance

Keep                   your                  distance

Keep

                                your

                                                               distance

Poetry Challenge Day 20: Isolation

 

These Days

What will the story be when they write about these days?   

We were walking behind screens with everyone

Feeling alone on a crowded subway train

Then came these days

    forced into isolation by nature and man

Discovered that we are not enough

These days we are craving the simple

    Handshake

    Hug

    even a Smile

Locked behind doors, ordering

contactless interactions

We took for granted more than tomorrow

Now our wishes are muddled behind masks

    always six feet away

Someday

the shades will open again

a hug will be used to say hello

reservations made for 7:30

But not today

What will your story be when you write about these days?

Poetry Challenge Day 1: New World

To the Old Man Gardening During the Pandemic 

It is April 1, 2020

This is no joke, though

It’s late morning 

I am walking for the ninth day in a row

You are sitting on a yellow bucket

sleeveless black puffer jacket 

dark button-down work shirt

brown pants

and a black flat cap on your head

The lines on your face shows the years like a tree stump

The trowel in your hand moves slowly

    clearing away dead leaves

    turning up soil

A few purple tulips dot the garden

By summer your garden will be in full color

    but for now

there is work to be done

We nod hello, quickly

I’ve got earbuds in

 and a black hoodie on

I don’t know your age

    but you are old enough to have gone through the Great Depression

two world wars

Black Monday

9/11 

And now this moment in history

As I turn the corner

heading home

I wonder how many times you’ve seen the sky fall?

How did you deal with each fear?

What losses did you endure?

I do not resist the urge to look back

You are moving the yellow bucket a few feet to the left

    bending down you clear more dead debris

    working the top soil for the flowers to come

I smile

as I consider how much of your old world

is just the same as this new world