Today is the first Tuesday of the month. Veteran PAD participants know that means it's time for our first Two-for-Tuesday prompt of the month. You can pick one of the prompts, combine prompts, or write one poem for each prompt. For this Two-for-Tuesday prompt:
Write a change poem and/or...
Write a don't change poem.
Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them. — Robert Lee Brewer, Writer’s Digest
Author’s note: Virtually none of the ideas I wrote about here originated with me. Lots of other people have said the same things, asked the same questions, better, more eloquently. But if the point of poetry is expression, and you’re feeling something that’s common to a lot of other people, it’s OK to say it. To me one of the points of PAD is simply to get something, anything, out of your head and down on paper. Writing can release some of the pressure in there.
*I have known for months that COVIID-19 is rarely spread through contact with surfaces. But by then I was already in the habit of wiping things down, and it still seems like a good idea in general. I hope my “hygiene theater” is doing more good than bad.
**April 12, almost a week after I wrote this poem, an article came out in Slate Magazine that investigates these ideas far more deeply than I managed to in a few stanzas. Read it here: “I Do Not Trust People in the Same Way and I Don’t Think I Ever Will Again”
change
I know
trauma changes you
When this is ‘over’
(will there be an ‘over’?)
who will I be then?
In what way will I
reorder my priorities?
There’s been a lot of talk about
what ‘back to normal’
is going to look like
following a pandemic
with an airborne virus.
Have we seen the end of
blowing out birthday candles?
Since we’ve thought so much about
avoiding each other’s germs,
are we done with handshakes?
Will I ever go back to
NOT wiping down
frequently touched surfaces in my workplace*?
Will we still feel wary of crowds**
when this is ‘over’?
(I suspect I will.)
I saw a poll today
from Washington Post
reporting 62 percent of health care workers say
COVID-19 stress hurt their mental health.
Who the heck are the other 38 percent?
I don’t know anyone
who falls into that category.
As far as I can see
we are all coming out of this
changed.