Cell 2 Soul: The Humane Health Care Blog

LOOKING BACK...

By Jane Seskin

I REMEMBER
the amusement I felt hearing Toilet Paper was
in short supply and the anxiety later as I stood
in front of an empty supermarket shelf.

I REMEMBER In the early months not leaving
the house without my gloves.

I REMEMBER going to the living room window
at 7 to applaud the first responders.

I REMEMBER sobbing with grief reading the
obituaries from “Complications of Covid-19.”

I REMEMBER saying a meditation for myself
and others to be safe, hopeful, generous.

I REMEMBER getting the Q-tip tickle and
waiting for the verdict on sick or well.

I REMEMBER a week or more of unlimited
sourdough bread and butter, pasta, donuts!

I REMEMBER giving masks in zip-lock
bags to the homeless.

I REMEMBER going from blonde to gray and
reframing it as chic and sophisticated.

 

(Applauding first responders)

Link to full screen video.

Jane Seskin (www.olderwisershorter.com) is a social worker and author of the poetry collection Older Wiser Shorter. Her poetry and personal essays have been published in national magazines and journals.

Poems in Plague-time.

Poems and Quotations that resonated with me in the Time of Covid -19

 

March 27, 2020

There's a certain Slant of light,

Winter Afternoons –

That oppresses, like the Heft

Of Cathedral Tunes –

 

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –

We can find no scar,

But internal difference –

Where the Meanings, are –

 

None may teach it – Any –

'Tis the seal Despair –

An imperial affliction

Sent us of the Air –

 

When it comes, the Landscape listens –

Shadows – hold their breath –

When it goes, 'tis like the Distance

On the look of Death –

 

March 29, 2020

Samuel Beckett, The Unnameable

''I can`t go on, but I must go on. I will go on.''

(note... there are some different renditions.  These are the last words in the book)

 

April 12, 2020

Yiddish Proverb

If the rich could pay the poor to die for them, the poor would make a very nice living.