(POETRY)
CORONAVIRUS MANIA
MARGARET ECKMAN
CORONAVIRUS MANIA
MARGARET ECKMAN
Coronavirus mania
has ballooned past all borders, swept
the face masks and hand sanitizer and
TP right off the shelves, slammed shut
the stadium doors, slowed the Marathon
to a standstill, and made the lights go out
on Broadway. It’s spread wide its infection
of panic and hysteria and bored into my brain
with fever dreams of sweat-soaked sheets
and gasping breaths.
We are both over sixty, told to
stay home, bide our time, wait it out.
So on this wondrously blustery
March day, we abandon our
shelter to let the chilly gusts
cool our delirium, climb the
byways of Little Nahant, watch
the gulls wheel and dip, their shrieks
piercing the ocean’s steady roar,
and marvel as the wind whips
the wave crests to spindrift, wild
manes that stream in the stiff breeze
till the sun, entranced, catches them
up and braids them with rainbows.
has ballooned past all borders, swept
the face masks and hand sanitizer and
TP right off the shelves, slammed shut
the stadium doors, slowed the Marathon
to a standstill, and made the lights go out
on Broadway. It’s spread wide its infection
of panic and hysteria and bored into my brain
with fever dreams of sweat-soaked sheets
and gasping breaths.
We are both over sixty, told to
stay home, bide our time, wait it out.
So on this wondrously blustery
March day, we abandon our
shelter to let the chilly gusts
cool our delirium, climb the
byways of Little Nahant, watch
the gulls wheel and dip, their shrieks
piercing the ocean’s steady roar,
and marvel as the wind whips
the wave crests to spindrift, wild
manes that stream in the stiff breeze
till the sun, entranced, catches them
up and braids them with rainbows.
Margaret Eckman began writing poetry later in life. An editor by trade, she has come to love the rigor poetry demands—telling a complete story in a few short lines. Her award-winning poems have appeared in the Aurorean, Broadkill Review, Corbel Stone Press’s Contemporary Poetry Series, Nantucket Magazine, Wild Word, and other publications. Her book of poetry Hope runs through it (written as M. W. MacKay) is a narrative collection that explores nature, the spiritual world, and what it means to raise a child with special needs.
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The author noted that the photo was taken on the day the poem was written.