Dorothea Biba Naouai
Spent the Days
We spent the days
Sleeping,
Like spent lovers,
In each others’ arms,
Breathing slowly,
Our bodies blazing
With the virus,
Come to re
Member us to
The Magnificent,
To the delicate
Flower
Galas Have Been Cancelled
Galas have been cancelled
and the banquet halls are empty
The morning commute
is a breeze
And the subway shuts down
at night
for cleaning
Restaurants and cafés,
struggling yet with
take out and delivery,
have stacked their
tables and chairs
Hair salons, bars, museums, schools:
All shuttered
Only grocery stores are busy,
lines of masked customers,
respecting 6 feet distance
Zoom has replaced
the board room,
the meeting hall,
the classroom,
the newsroom and
late night talk shows
Telehealth is the new norm
Even chamber music
and a capella concerts,
the individual parts
performed in living rooms
across the world and
expertly edited together
Family dinners and game night,
Tiny faces in tiny boxes,
Screens within screens
Weddings, funerals, graduations
All online.
And still, the birds
begin to sing
(of open sky?)
in the green, green world
outside my lightening
bedroom
The one with whom
I share my life sleeps soundly beside me;
Deep breath in
Deep breath out
The Joker
Already
We were primed
for fear, inculcated
From communism and
The cold war
We moved swiftly through
Nuclear armageddon
Into the threat
Of terrorism
Cancer screenings
For early detection
Of abnormal cellular
Growth in colon and
Breast, scrutinizing
The edges of moles
Pesticides and chemicals
In food and hair products,
Mercury in fish
And aluminum In antiperspirants
We had already learned
To worry dutifully about
Parents, sliding Into Alzheimer’s,
Opioid addiction In our children
Or, worse,
Mediocrity
Identity theft made
Unfamiliar telephone numbers
Volatile and
Of course,
Climate change,
The result of simple
Greed,
From which there is
No escape
We had learned fear
By heart,
Like a prayer -
Fear of saying the wrong thing,
Fear of landing in the wrong
Neighborhood, the wrong,
Job, fear
Of marrying
Of divorcing
We had imagined every kind of disaster
Except the one that came.
With a magician’s flourish,
Smart people
Around the world
Scattered,
Like cockroaches,
Leaving Death
Laughing
Like the Joker
In the Center
Of an empty school yard
