1.14.21 - The Land of COVID and Insurrection

Recalled fragments, thought by spider thread 
An anxious cursor blinks, retyped a dozen times 
NRP echoes unread love letters ‘tween tense 
Headlines that dim a frigid sky soon and sooner

The oven never heats, yet it spews sour flame 
Pizzas burned in minutes or never thawed. 
Woken from a cold dusk haze by bell tones 
From one masked, forced smile to another

Twelve more minutes on a cracked screen timer 
Fifty degrees higher, listen to the hollow hiss 
Who was within six feet for fifteen minutes 
Thirty six hours past. Fear, yet hope, for fire 

7.1.20 - Pandemic Poetry #2

We all scare, a little, here
Crowded, breadcrumb beds
That sound, light, or touch
Would drown tearful fears
This pain that clings to us
Memories on a slow burn
Hollowed out the dreams
Years repeat in night’s sleep

I make my last rounds during the witching hours
Check the locks, tiptoe past all my sleeping wards
Still, toiling away during the quiet night creeps
While in the bedroom shows stream in hopes of
Crowding out their darkest remembered dreams
They breathe slowly and softly cry out in the dark
One last race before I lay down my worried head
Dreaming of apex turns instead of counting sheep