Pandemic Poems - APRIL 2020
Bio Note: I am a writer based in Ames, Iowa, appreciating my apartment's west-facing windows during
golden hour. Prior to moving to Ames, I lived in New York City, where I fell in love with farmers markets and
public transportation. In addition to poetry, I write short fiction about Filipino Americans, family conflicts,
climate change, and ruined dinners.
Sonnet Staying In
Resilience has a limit. To stay
sequestered for so long invites indifference.
After this, there is no after. You pray
for this to pass. Stay inside this instant.
There’s a wind blowing hard enough to twist
every sentence to doubt. Who knows what’s right?
What harm comes from believing in this
crowned virus as monarch? The way we fight
is by bedrest, comfort, home remedy
if you’re privileged. No salvation if not.
Your canceled milestone is a tragedy.
But your favorite god or goddess has caught
their destiny. After this, there is no
after, only one direction to go.
Is it nice where you are?
Here, there is sunlight on the dewdrops
glistening the leaves. Glitter hints
the snap peas they’ll grow into
end of spring. The wood porch
is warm, and the seat a dream nap
stretched out in a field.
Unnamed birds
wing their way, and sing
in the branches of an old fir.
There is nothing like it. Feast
for every sense. In the evenings,
all there is, is rest. Is it nice,
where you are? Though I may pace
the same carpeted square feet, lushness
blooms from my vacuum tracks.
Is it nice? Tell me
it is nice where you are.
©2020 Caroliena Cabada
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the
author (email address above) to tell her or him. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual.
It is very important. -JL