Simon: What is this place?
Ethan: it’s the mountains, I kind of grew up here.
Simon: there’s so many smells!
Ethan: yeah, and hawks,
Simon: Shhh I’m listening for the train…
Ethan: there’s no train…
Simon: shhhh I’m listening…
Hold those thoughts
That keep me away
While the lights
Echo my lonely fears
In the streets tonight
——-
They say the world
Keeps changing everyday
But I wake in the night
I feel the same
——-
Maybe we’re so much older
Maybe we’re so much younger
Maybe we’ve been here before
Pour me a drink
Don’t let me go
——
The summer is coming
These clouds won’t stay so grey
We can’t live out our hopes and dreams inside yesterday’s
I’m tired
We’re all tired
It’s a month in
Driving home through GA
The interstate was clear like thanksgiving ….
No, like the Iron Bowl
I’m glad for this mountain, this space…
But we have no real timeline
How is this sustainable ?
Maybe I’m just tired
I’m having a very different experience than most people
Being on the front lines if you will…
I just want to sleep
Drink
And write
If I could
I would drink and fuck my way through this but I can’t
And I already know I wouldn’t
I’m a giver
And I’m concerned
And I can’t sleep
It’s a month in
When all of this is over
They will open the bars
And the restaurants
The theatres
You won’t be able to get a seat
Then i will go into quarantine
And I will sleep
I will vacation at my home in the mountains
I will write
And I will sleep
When this is over
I will kiss you
And I will see you
Time may change us
And all that we’ve become
Suddenly all of the scars
The battle wounds
We’ve inflicted on one another
Pales in the light of this New
——-
I think about all that we know
All of you
And I think
How lucky I have been
To see all of us happy
All of us cry
To see us dancing
Drinking
Living
To see you singing
I think about all of us working the front lines
Those who are in face masks
How all you see are eyes
But you learn you can see a smile
Feel a smile
And
I think
How lucky I have been ….
To be alive for this…
To see you right now
We are together
Right now
In this night
You’re a good nurse
You’re a good neighbour
You’re a good person
Reaching out
Staying in
Keeping hope
We will live to fight another day
We will live to love
Another day
I lay there
In the floor
Staring into the ceiling
Thinking about all that I took for granted
How abruptly it all stopped
How many times I said things like
“You can vent to me anytime. Or we can sit in silence.”
And how right now, you can’t even sit in silence and hold one another …
I think about reading to you
And how the silences were
I think about winter, when the snow is fresh and the ice has something to say, covering everything in the morning….
I still have so much to say
I’m afraid I don’t know how
I’m afraid for all of us
I’m just afraid
Live your life
Live it fully
The silences
The paragraphs
The breaks
Live it unashamedly
Live it fully
Every moment
The sadness
The pain
The joy
Live it
Be aware of it
Be aware of yourself
And this life
And your place in it
Let us not go silently
Alone
Let us go beautifully
Like falling stars
Aware of the time
And that all of this is brief
You’re doing it right
Stay
Stay
Live to fight so many more days
Let your souls light be like the morning, I have no doubt, after this midnight, we all will be moved by your rise…
I’ve moved to the mountains, I never thought I would move this far out. But it’s April and National Poetry Month…I always try to write a lot during this time…I believe this will help me.
I keep telling myself things will go back to normal. I’ve written and checked on a few friends. Some have already lost family members. All of this is surreal. I don’t see how it can go back to “normal” if we lose people we love.
I think the worst fear. Or realisation. Is that this doesn’t care who you are, or where you’re from. And you will die alone. Your family cannot day good bye and they cannot grieve your loss…
My dad died alone and so this really hits home for me…
It’s like a shadow covering the sky
You know this will leave a mark…
Holding your breath
Hoping, waiting,
You’re constantly thinking about your employees and their safety and your friends and your community, did I clean this ? Did I touch that? Did I do enough?
Are we safe? Are we out of this shadow? or is this just the eye of the storm…
I tried writing a few letters. My hands shake so much, you couldn’t have read it. I’m not really sure the last time I slept well. I wonder about the weather, how it will change everything. We all have short term memory.
Will I run out of things to say?
This is not the end
Just get through these hours
Look for the opportunity
You’re still you
I have this nervous energy
Everyone is awake
Wanting these days to end
I’m tired
So tired
And I wonder
If 14 days is enough
I’ve been, along with so many of us, working for 13 days 142 hours and we all see the same things…this isn’t enough, this could be our reality for a few months…
I hope for new art
I hope for new beginnings
I hope we are strong enough
Let us be good
Let us be good
Are we good …
