Stay Home, Stay Safe

This is a poem that reflects my emotions as we entered into the Stay Home Stay Safe period

Nancy Gore

March 2020

Nancy Gore

Stay Home, Stay Safe

And we begin to smell as we go longer between baths

we miss the beat
of routines

we lose connection
to distractions

And we ache
for all that is breaking

loved ones
fixed stubbornly in our hearts
and out of reach

And here is my grief
In my throat
and in my chest
and it melts my face
from forehead down

And there are my children
One
two
and three
So far away
and here are my tears

Stripped of excuses bald-faced anxiety also lodged in my throat
but this one grips my jaw and clenches my teeth as my body defends against accumulating harm.

Let us now count to 4

as we inhale

and hold our breath

And count again

as we exhale

Now.

Let us breathe.