by, Renee Wood
October 20, 2020

The world now is two dimensional - black or
White - sitting in houses behind sanitized glass,
Computer, Ipad, Iphone, TV, a picture window
Watching
Numbers of dead pile behind diseased masks.
Maskless, flat-faced talking heads in the glass
Say, “Masks protect us, we are in this together”
Their lips make cash
We eat crumbs of leftovers watching their lips
For some news, not scraps, about this thing
What it looks and acts like, who let it lose
Catch it – no don’t!

Now this diseased dog, Covid, rages the streets,
Reproducing, no condoms to stop its spread
Keeping us locked in solitary glass sanitizeries
Covid is free to roam.
Watching seasons go by in the picture window
Late winter, warned, “Stay in”, except to get food
Icicles dripped, orange hair said it would end soon
Trees budded
Zephyrs flowed through curtains, bringing hope,
Spring that blows in with its fresh minty breath
Buying plants for the garden, the glory of shopping
Hidden

Mask-covered, loving hearts, stand 6 feet apart,
Covid – master of disguise, could be behind a mask
Run back to the sanitizery. No one saw a smile, if one
Appeared
Breezes turn into heat. The plants producing food,
Colors of skin draw murderers, streets erupt, behind
The TV glass, no one hears the other behind masks
What’s Truth!?
Glass shows different worlds – one masked, one without
Are masked bandits good or bad? Who’s killing who?
Soaps dropped in my 20’s, fake lovers mistaken for real -
Now glass IS

Summer heat turns to falling leaves through the window.
Orange hair fans the flames of many fires on the screen,
Covid has produced 3 million and killed 200,000 -
Hurricanes blow

The air turns crisp, windows shut out the breeze now,
Curtains no longer blow and dance in afternoon sun
The caress of gentle wind, nearest to a hug in 6 months
Gone too
Meetings with a glass menagerie of heads, familiar faces,
Talking business, without places. Do these heads have bodies?
Garden wrinkled with memories of home cooked eat-in-meals
Dead now
Orange hair continues to divide. Don’t want to pick a side,
Want to be free to say, “Grant was ok”; “Abortion’s wrong”;
“I admire RBG ”; “Love whomever”; “I embrace BLM ”, without
Assigned a side.

Tulips are pretty, ragweed not. People are different,
A mixture of good and bad, sinner and saint, struggling to
Emerge to a better self, judgment cloaked as love, the wolf 
In sheep’s clothing
Covid not leashed or tamed, wandering free, schools closed
No end til next year when we can kill all Covid’s pups. A deadly
Winter, another Spring, Summer, and Fall behind sanitized glass
Watching
Talking heads preaching, the grass grows, leaves fall, 
Endlessly, repeating like the Sims, watching my stomach grow 
With cancer that took root. A year without warmth, void of Touch 
And Life!


orange hair - U.S. 45th President 
glass menagerie - The Glass Menagerie is the difficulty the 
characters have in accepting and relating to reality. 
As a result, withdraws into a private world of illusion where
 he or she finds the comfort and meaning that the real world 
does not seem to offer. 
RBG - Ruth Bader Ginsburg 
BLM - Black Lives Matter 
Sims - Computer simulation game about life