September 2020
Bio Note: My work in the local county jail has shifted from medical to mental health. Like every endeavor in life,
when one makes such a change, there is a transition from professional to novice. Thankfully, the novice phase was short, and I feel
more comfortable in my new role. My poetry is often influenced by what I see and hear daily at work. I have two collections of poetry:
a clear day in october which is only available directly from me, and do you hear it, available from Kelsay Books and Amazon.
Author's Note: The first poem is clearly COVID-19 related, but the second, though it may seem to be, is not. It was written on the occasion of a sore throat, before I had heard of the coronavirus, and explores two perspectives on treatment.
Author's Note: The first poem is clearly COVID-19 related, but the second, though it may seem to be, is not. It was written on the occasion of a sore throat, before I had heard of the coronavirus, and explores two perspectives on treatment.
tell me why, tell me where
last week my patients ask in worried voices why are you wearing a mask? i tell them, truthfully, because i don't want to bring that virus in and i don't want to take that virus out i'm not sick, just cautious they nod, knowingly pleased that i consider them worth not infecting they interpret it as caring and that's okay with me the guards ask in challenging tones why are you wearing a mask their fear is no more hidden than the worry i see on every patient's face why? because... you know the rest no virus in, no virus out this is a jail, isn't it? today, one week later no one asks me anymore about the mask, they know the reasons they watch the news, get their clues from me, from each other the question has changed as well can i get a mask like yours and the sad answer is locked up in a supply closet somewhere or tossed carelessly on the ground in a supermarket parking lot or reused a hundred times by a doctor, a nurse no, there are no masks for you until—i don't know when
fire with fire/cold with cold
nothing is quite like the raw, intense pain of a sore throat aflame so of course the macho cure is heat in retaliation hot tea, hot toddy hot orange juice hot soup— mess with the big boy you'll get burned she has a different answer suggests that i fight my cold with the greater cold of ice cream hard from the freezer ice cream with ribbons of dark, tenacious chocolate that coat the throat thick poultices of mud across the battle wounds of this latest viral onslaught
©2020 j.lewis
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It is very important. -FF