In Another Time | The Quarantine Poems
THE QUARANTINE POEMS IS A SERIES OF POETRY WRITTEN DURNING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN, AVAILABLE IN TEXT AND IN AUDIO.
THE third INSTALMENT, in another time, IS AUTHORED BY erin ammon.
A half-remembered dream
It seems to me that everything is marked
in the time before
and now
I'm sorry
Is that dramatic?
I've always been preoccupied
by the bittersweet conundrum of mortality
and being
Lately it seems that you are, too
You can't buy a new pair of shoes
without thinking
of its afterlife in a landfill
You can't order a meal
without thinking of
the person who made it
and at what cost
So this wasn't the Big One
I always thought there would be time
Tomorrow I'll visit that bakery
I'll call you back later
So much so that
when my mother called crying
begging me to come home
I pinned all my hopes
on this rusted-out machine
believing it would never fail
There will be a plane
some other day
I'll wait here
People still walk the streets
My heart continues
to beat weakly
Still, I can't help but think
What if I had missed
the last plane home?
In another time
I have been consumed
by the darkness of my mind
Who will I be
when I emerge from this?
I wonder how long it will be
until we laugh
about our wasted year
about the year
we couldn't get a drink with friends
we had to learn how to cook
we ran out of good TV
about the year
the graves were dug in the park
we feared every day for our safety
for the safety of those we love
2020 we will say
What a crazy year
I threw away my calendar
I learned how to make sourdough
I wept inconsolably
