Selected Responses from Spring 2020 Poetry for the People Class On The COVID– 19 Pandemic 1 Table of Contents– Response to COVID-19 Page # Title Author (Last, First) 02 Table of Content– Response to COVID-19 04 COVID Meets the West Hoefker,Cathrine 06 It’s not that bad Greer, Autumn 08 March 2020, We Learned to Grieve Hemphill, Kiere 10 The Silence is Deafening Green, Tabby 12 The Never-Ending List Hoefker, Cathrine 15 Down With The Sickness Wilson, Summer 16 Stay Inside Flores, Matthew 18 Nowhere to go/ Just Breath Roeda, Jon 20 Wishes for next Spring Wich, Amanda 22 Standby Ortega, Kirsten Batholomew 2 Page # Title Author (Last, First) 24 A Note to the Future on How we Faced this Sachaj, Rebecca Darkness 25 During the COVID-19 Pandemic 26 Twin Flames Garcia, Ariana 3 COVID Meets the West Hoefker, Cathrine (After “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen) Doctors shrieking out-of the states, With test tubes waved way up high Ain't no fear but the fear of this virus, Vaccine just ain’t ready to go Are you ready, hey are you ready for this? Are you coughing into the crook of your sleeve? Out of airports, the carriers walk Into crowded lots HEY! Another one bites the dust. And another one gone, and another one gone Another one bites the dust. HEY! Are you listening, are you scared? How many will have to die? Out of grocery stores carriers walk Into crowded streets HEY! There’s plenty of ways to level a town And bring their population down You can nuke ‘em, you can shoot ‘em You can pull a coup d’etat and leave the economy down HEY! And it’s ready it's out and about The illness is spreading fast Out of cruise ships, carriers walk Crossing borders and into new lands oh yeah 4 HEY! Another one bites the dust. And another one gone, and another one gone Another one bites the dust. 5 It’s not that Bad Greer, Autumn She’d heard about the virus in China Mostly, she’d seen the memes. People with the flu: stay home sick all day People with Coronavirus: I travel the world and seven seas She laughed and sent it to her lads. It’s not that bad. People in Europe tested positive Places were being shut down People are so dramatic It’s just the flu It’s not like it’s a huge pandemic He was in a plane, Puerto-Rico bound. It’s not that bad. There were a few cases in the U.S. Their tickets to Italy were cancelled Great, there goes our Spring Break Guess we’ll have to spend it down by the lake, instead The group all camped together in one tiny tent The six-foot rule didn’t count for them. They were healthy, and It’s not that bad. Parks flooded as schools were moved online People lost their jobs and cards were declined Only the essential can report for work It became real when the emergency alert went off on their phones: Unless deemed essential, you must stay at home But aren’t we all essential? That’s why they say Stay at home. To protect the girl in the hospital with cancer. To keep your grandparents safe from danger. To keep the death toll from rising above two-hundred fifty-thousand. But don’t worry, because for you and me, I’ve heard It’s not that bad. 6 7 March 2020, We Learned to Grieve Hemphill, Kiera The world shifted; we were left to marry loss and hope and to weld joy and mourning like jagged pieces of a stained-glass window. These connections were an ache settling in the backs of our eyes and the lines of our throats. We realized more fully what it meant to be human. What it meant to live collectively. What it meant to grieve. Grief is a Tennessee gas station in July. It is dense, inhospitable humidity compressing our lungs, melting our cotton shirts to our shoulder blades; it is thick air fusing our thighs to the nylon seat, evaporating our resolve. Grief is desperately unwanted and somehow, expected; it crowds the crevices of every unassuming building, news article, sidewalk conversation, local grocery store aisle. Grief can feel solitary, like we are alone under the stark beams of an overzealous stage light, aware of our being, aware of our habits, aware of our naïve illusions of control. Yet grief connects us, molding each voice into a global echo expressing life and loss. March 2020, we learned to grieve, not to appease our own thoughts or to balance our own losses, 8 but to exfoliate the layers of dirt and anguish from our world, to offer the warm hospitality of connection, to say the millions of numbers crowding the statistics mattered— they were people. We grieved change and lost answers. We grieved missed goodbyes tumbling around our minds like coins in the dryer. We grieved canceled graduations and the hollow cheer of “Pomp and Circumstance.” We grieved loved ones slipping away surrounded by hazmat suits and a cacophony of respirators. We grieved jobs shriveling like orange rinds in the sun. We grieved children trapped in cycles of abuse, neglect, and hunger in their homes. We grieved lives marked by mass graves and unemployment claims. We grieved doctors and nurses bowing beneath exhaustion and insufficient resources. March 2020, we learned to grieve. 9 The Silence is Deafening Green, Tabby Tick, Tick, Tick The world is at a halt But time keeps going Birthdays Anniversaries Holidays Still there Still happening But silenced under the sound of the news Drip, Drip, Drip I can now fix the faucet Where’s the toolbox? I’ll get it after this commercial I’ll get it after this movie I’ll get it after dinner I’ll get it tomorrow Click, Click, Click I read the list I shop the aisles From the comfort of my couch Still compulsively buying And now I can’t blame product placement Pssst, Pssst, Pssst The last sound I hear after everything I touch The Lysol coats the air The Lysol coats the knobs The Lysol coats the electronics Lacing it Like frosting on a cake 10 But not as sweet Everything suffocated under its smell Silence I watch the interpreter on the screen I replace the missing Of school Of my teacher Of my inspiration She repeats the confirmed cases She repeats the death toll That’s enough practice for today This is how we flatten the curve, right? 11 The Never-Ending List Hoefker, Cathrine It started out as a temporary change, A momentary shift and it has evolved into a monstrous beast that hides under lists TO-DO LIST (home) • Dishes, • • Laundry, • • cleaning, • Re-wash laundry, wipe down the doors, do the dishes, switch out the air filters... • work out, • • Plan and make dinner, • • homeschool the children, • • discipline the children for fighting over a sock • - where did it even come from?!?!?! - explain to the kids for the 100th time that they can't go to a friends house, this is how it is go- ing to be right now and that we should make the most of it, get some work done, Ok, what about work... TO-DO (work) • Read those 3 books • you should have read over spring break! • Finish those assignments from spring break class 12 • • Clear Inbox, • • respond to emails, • • send out those emails I forgot to do yesterday, • was that even yesterday or was that from last week, I thought I had sent them out?... • check back in on the kids, make sure they are doing what they need to be doing • • go for a walk, • • don't forget to rest, • • learn something new, • oh shit we need to go grocery shopping, Shopping List • Toilet paper • maybe they have finally restocked.... • Gloves? • • Soap • any soap will work at this point • Chicken (3lbs), • • Green Chilies • • COFFEE • • Noodles (gf), • 13 • Cheese, • • Sour Cream, • • Cottage Cheese, • • Milk • ?Does the grocery store have fabric? • Materials to make masks • Where did the day go 8 hours felt like 2 But yesterday dragged on. At least there is dinner on the table tonight. "Hello. Yes, this is she. I am well, just making dinner, how can I help you? Yes, I can start to- morrow. 8am? Sure. Great. Thank you so much. I will see you tomorrow!" At least I have a job now... Everyone sits down for dinner This is the only time we are together In the same room Talking to each other. Yet we are home everyday 14 Down With The Sickness Wilson, Summer “It’s not all that bad,” I told myself Rolling out of bed And for the first time in months My to-do list is bare and inspiring What will it be today? Yoga? More peppermint tea? Perhaps some anime? I should be fine as long as I do not turn on the news, Lest the panic sweeps over me as well. But my sister, My world, The only one who could ever understand the trauma we spring from, crashes through the front door, Her eyes are nearly swollen shut, Her cheeks chapped and stinging from salty tears, She declares that quarantine has dissected her life day by day, Until there was nothing left but panic and isolation. We were packing up our cars with her belongings only hours later, Emotional tensions run high, She just wanted to come see me, But he was afraid and wouldn't let her go, Lest she returns hand-in-hand with a paranoid death.