This is what I did today
I walked two thousand,
six hundred
and seventy steps
Inside the house
Listening to my sister explain on the phone
For almost an hour
How she is not freaking out
That she found my brother-in-law
Unconscious this morning
And was calling from the hospital parking lot
Because they won’t let her inside
Being alone these days is different
Than being alone used to be
I went three days this week
Without talking to anyone
Until my sister called
Because I kept crying
And couldn’t seem to stop
Human needs don’t stop
With the news cycle
My daughter needs a thousand dollars
For an unexpected medical expense
My son needs to move a thousand miles away
My sister needs to prepare
To let herself grieve
My best friend needs for me
To be easier to love
Is the end coming?
Will we remember or revert?
I have enough food in the house
To last through another plague
But all I want to eat
Is carry out.
Slightly off the Dverse prompt of 3/16/21: “This being human is”, from The Guest House by Rumi.
This poem has always slightly set my nerves on edge because of that first line, so I treated it a little differently.
Also Plague Series #57
Xanku 
I finally got around to reading your poem, Xan. It’s taken me from around eight o’clock to just gone one to get through the wonderful Poetics offerings – quite a task! I love the way you wove the words from the prompt line into your poem – a clever twist – and that you have made it so intimate and immediate. I agree that being alone these days is different, and I’ve done my fair share of crying over the past year. This poem packs a punch!
Thank you Kim. Your suggestion to simply treat the words differently opened the gates. Not terribly metaphoric, but I think these more concrete poems are where I speak the clearest.
Xan,
This is an awesome approach, and I’m into the concrete, personally! Well done!
-David
I am so sorry for your pain, Xan. I think we are all somewhere in this, feeling scared and alone and overwhelmed. Your use of the prompt is so clever.
It’s a collective pain that’s so hard to watch everyone going through. Thank goodness for poets!
I like how you spread the prompt line across each stanza
thank you, it was Kim’s idea, more or less!
Wow. *applause*
[takes a bow]
Many who are sequestered share your thoughts. I send healing thoughts!
Passing them on to the whole country!
SUCH a good read. So real. I LOVE “but all I want to eat is carry out.” Me, too.
oh, it’s such a strange time.
This poem deserves a standing ovation! 💝💝 Beautifully raw and poignant.
Thank you Sanaa. It started as a difficult write, and then Kim gave a good suggestions and it just came pouring out.
Being human is to experience stress and anxiety and come out the other side. Not an easy task for sure. A great poem. I like how you broke it down.
Thank you!
You are welcome!
I should have said, I am sorry for all the difficult things that your are facing in this difficult time of isolation.
Understood. I hope that my experience, in an odd way, is universal, and that people see these and feel not quite so alone, or crazy.
Yes, I believe it is…
Alexandra so sorry to hear about your sister’s partner and that she wasn’t being allowed into the hospital. I can’t imagine the anguish of it. You there at home, helpless but there to get her through it. The other family pile on to that sense of isolation and helplessness. And when friends can’t understand it hurts most of all. We need more than a bridge, we need a superhighway across these troubled waters. {{{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}}
If there’s a lesson from all this its the amazing power of the human connection and how stubbornly we make the connections happen.
YES!!!! WE NEED EACH OTHER. I hate to get cheesy, but Barbra Streisand’s song just popped into my head.
and now, we will all be singing it all day.
Our humaness is certainly a very different experience in this pandemic Xan — well written!
thank you, Rob! This prompt turned out to be a brilliant one; I think it was one of the best collections of response I’ve seen.
Wow wow wow, this strikes deep into the heart…the very basics of being human. Impressive write.
Thank you. It started as such a difficult write, and then just flowed out once I got it going.
That does happen sometimes 😉
This is personal. Had to reread to get that you felt alone and overwhelmed yet those around you did not.