A N A N T H O L O G Y WHAT WAS & WHAT WILL BE Life in the Time of COVID-19 E D I T E D B Y B A R B A R A S H O U P Introduction Since 2014, the Indiana Writers Center, Dance Kaleidoscope, JCC Indianapolis, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and others have partnered to present a program for the annual Spirit and Place Festival, bringing writers and dancers together to explore an issue of importance to our community. This year, the issue was obvious—and “What It Was and Will Be” was born. When Covid-19 hit this spring, nobody’s life was untouched by it. We pared our lives down to the necessities and sheltered in the best way we could. Sometimes we were surprised by what we didn’t need, sometimes by what we missed (and how much we missed it.) We celebrated birthdays and graduations with drive-by parties; Zoom cocktail hours kept us in touch. We mourned our losses without the comfort of loved ones surrounding us. We wondered if it would ever end. Whether the personal consequences of the virus have been tragic or just deeply disorienting, we’ve all had moments of fear, anxiety, anger, grief, and frustration, as well as moments of happiness, insight, and even joy. Living through this strange time has been different for each of us—yet, in many ways, the same. We asked Hoosiers to write about their experiences during this time, challenging them to think about what being quarantined has been like, what they learned about themselves, others, the world we share. We asked them to tell us how time feels when the world suddenly shrinks, and how they’ve been spending that time. We asked them to imagine how their lives will be different when, finally, the pandemic is over. “The horror of that moment,” the king went on, “I shall never forget it!” “You will,” the Red Queen thought, “if you don’t make a memorandum of it. Lewis Carol, Alice in Wonderland Like the king, we think we’ll never forget what it was like to live through the 2020 Pandemic. But the Red Queen was right. Memories fade over time and we find ourselves grasping for details from bygone days. So, it’s important to write our stories down—for ourselves and for our families, of course, but also to contribute to the historical record of our times. Letter writing has become a lost art; thus, future historians will be denied the riches of ordinary life they have traditionally conveyed. I think of the pieces in this anthology as letters waiting to be discovered years from now by those who want to understand what 1 life was like during COVID 19. Maybe because they’re curious; maybe because they’re living through a pandemic themselves and are looking for guidance. And imagine them discovering the ancient YouTube video of beautiful dances choreographed by Dance Kaleidoscope dancers, visual interpretations of ten stories read by their authors! I hope you will enjoy reading the responses to the pandemic in What It Was and Will Be. To encourage you to write about your own experience, we have added a list of prompts at the end of the anthology, as well as several exercises guaranteed to help you get your memories on the page. If you’d like what you write to be included in an addendum to this online anthology, please send them to [email protected]. And be sure to watch the online performance of “What It Was and Will Be.” The video will go live at 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 8. It will be available for viewing through Sunday, November 22 at 5 p.m. Here’s the link: (NOT AVAILABLE UNTIL 11.7) Barbara Shoup Writer-in-Residence Indiana Writers Center 2 3 Table of Contents Emiliano Aguilar Jr. Mexican Independence Day Parade: A Family Tradition..............................................8 Caelea Armstrong Pleasure Boating in the Apocalypse.............................................................................10 Jennifer Bostian A Litany of Lists............................................................................................................13 Cut Me Off....................................................................................................................17 Michael Brockley You return to the movies for the first time during the national solitude........................21 An Aubade at the Threshold of Loneliness..................................................................22 When the children gather for a parable in the ruins of a bomb-hollowed church.........23 Mary Brown Puzzling Times............................................................................................................24 Tell Me........................................................................................................................26 Dreaming During the Pandemic..................................................................................27 Ian Brundige Six Feet Apart.............................................................................................................29 Dan Carpenter Paradise Lost to the Pandemic...................................................................................31 Bryn Cousins Athena........................................................................................................................33 Rosaleen Crowley Where Is Home in a Global Pandemic?.....................................................................38 Jodie English Ode to My Student Who Is Starving..........................................................................41 Covidian Nocturne.....................................................................................................42 Marjie Giffin Taken Away..............................................................................................................43 4 Rachel Hedges Ballad for the Silent Stage........................................................................................44 Cara Howard Lost Time..................................................................................................................45 Shelter-in-Place........................................................................................................47 Franci Kay Kissel Zoom Summer Camp...............................................................................................49 Norbert Krapf Letter to My Ancestors During a Pandemic..............................................................52 Something Dying in Me............................................................................................54 The Pandemic Blues................................................................................................55 Leah Lederman Construction Season................................................................................................56 Dial “P” for Pandemic...............................................................................................59 My Bleeding Heart...................................................................................................60 Sophia Ling To Sushi Bar and Country Music.............................................................................62 Love Transcends Time and Space..........................................................................64 Tracy Mishkin Progression.............................................................................................................66 Cheryl Soden Moreland Letter to My Granddaughter Yet to Be....................................................................67 Lylanne Musselman Wellington: Covid-19 Celebrity................................................................................69 Once Upon a Time in a Stray America....................................................................70 Seeking Comfort in a Pandemic..............................................................................71 Jeff Rasley Cross-Country Road Trip During the Pandemic......................................................72 Jeremy Richard Waiting for the Fever...............................................................................................77 5 April Ridge As Whole Cities Burn...............................................................................................79 Echoes.....................................................................................................................80 Patricia Russell What Was, May Never Be Again.............................................................................82 Christina Williams Saulter In the End................................................................................................................84 John Schleeter Butterflies and Bees................................................................................................85 Mary Sexson Love in a Time of Corona........................................................................................87 Close.......................................................................................................................88 What He Said..........................................................................................................89 Laurel Smith Hanging Out with Joy..............................................................................................90 Elisabeth Giffin Speckman Self-Care with Toddler, in Quarantine.....................................................................93 Continued on Page 12.............................................................................................94 Eliana.......................................................................................................................95