Pandemic Poem a Day

 I try to devote the first few minutes of the morning to what I call "centering" myself, sort of a poetry devotion. For months I have been reading a poem a day and writing a one-paragraph response or a possible poem prompt. For August, I am trying another exercise, to write a brief poem on life during the current plague. I tend to take days and weeks on a poem, not let it out forever. I am going to brave it and whip these little things out and share them in the moment. Here is the one for day 1, August 11th:

FIVE MONTHS LATER

We arrived home March 11^th, feeling

wary, having visited a friend in a halfway

house in Nashville, eaten out on the road--

a meal we didn’t know would be the last

of that, and cancelled our room at a hotel

in chaos for another that was quieter, left 

it early the next morning with carryout coffee.

Then, we stayed in, stayed well, felt lucky,

never knew it would be this long.

And it will be a lot longer.