Good-bye, Big Dipper; good-bye, Pleiades; goodbye, Orion, good-bye. Underneath this dome leeching its incandescence into the sky, the “what’s that? what’s that? what’s that, what’s that?” of the modern trade in attention disorder, our faces booked...
Kill All the Bats
Fifteenth day under lockdown, twenty-second in self-isolation, and I had already lost most of my muscles. Not that I was a wrestler before that. Not even a fan of that violent sport. Sports like wrestling are based on fake hatred. And fake or...
The Worm’s Turn
It wasn’t the first time worms had come into it. There was a vast tract of land richer than loam and home to a vast colony of worms who have lived in secret for centuries in compost, compiling a great work from the worm’s eye view, under- mining the...
#CampusClear
To: All Faculty and Staff From: Vice President of Human Resources Re: Mandatory COVID-19 #CampusClear Daily Screening Please complete all of these prompts on a daily basis whether or not you plan on coming to campus, seven days a week, as part of...
The Lizard
The lizard was trapped between the glass door and the screen. Its long, crooked body and small head couldn’t hide the sight of my dry backyard. Yet the lizard was all I could see. A lizard, my sole companion in these strange days of isolation and...
Home School
J-U-S-T-I-C-E. I am writing in neon chalk on my driveway as four bare white feet dance in all directions around me. Jonas, three years old and exploding into boyhood, grabs the green chalk and scribbles around my letters. Emet, six, takes the...
MY CULTURAL APPROPRIATION
I recently saw photos of Instagram influencers who had darkened their faces in a misguided show of solidarity for Black Lives Matter. Their efforts made me cringe and reminded me of a time in my own life when what began as empathy resulted in an...
A Pandemic Letter
Dear ______________, You stole my thunder, calling. I had been meaning to write. I guess we both felt the lack. Not that anything’s happening. Most seismic events here have been interior. Outwardly: last night I made yellow-rice-and-black...
TO SIRIUS B
Your sister, the Dog Star, was the brightest. You, the Pup, nobody even saw, until one night in eighteen sixty-two, when a young man with a telescope of his own devise looked up, and there, where the wobble in your sister’s gait suggested you...
Hi, This Is Your Neighbor
Attention Volunteers: Due to ____________, we have updated the Get Out the Vote script as follows. Further changes will be uploaded to this site weekly daily hourly on the minute. Please note, we have discontinued secondary primary log...
Behind the Red Railing: My Childhood Isolation
My first experience of isolation and social distancing occurred when I was four years old. Although I understand it now through the eyes of an adult, my recollection of the episode is utterly clear. I often picture it in my mind as a time before...