by Susan Auerbach
A celebration of life will be held when we can gather again.
–obituary, Los Angeles Times
When we can gather again
we’ll run whooping in the streets
as if at war’s end and throng
bars and subways and stadiums, stunned
at the proximity of strangers.
We’ll marvel over not-so-new newborns
and rush into hospitals to sit
with the dying. We’ll release kids
into playgrounds and free disembodied
worker heads from tiny Zoom room boxes.
When we can gather again
we’ll ramp up production not
of visors and ventilators
but of prom dresses, movies and ballets,
book tours and horse fairs. Schools will burst
with the clamor of homecoming
and teachers, who can no longer mute
the room, will remember why they teach,
while students will never forget
How I Spent My Pandemic.
When we can gather again
I’ll fly trans-Atlantic to kiss
the top of my grown son’s head;
you’ll cuddle your grandchild and read
Little Owl’s Day as long as she wants.
Millions will swipe right again while couples
dash out for dinner with friends–separately.
We’ll join moments of silence
at 7pm. We’ll need actors
and playwrights to stage a recovery
and long vacations for nurses
and grocery clerks. We’ll sing
Hallelujah at grand re-openings
of parks and sanctuaries and cook
lunches together for the hungry.
When we can gather again
we’ll gather up courage to take off
our masks (the ones we wore before)
and deem everyone essential to dream
a future for this brave new wounded world.
Susan Auerbach is a novice poet who returned to creative writing in midlife. Her poems have appeared in Greensboro Review, Literary Mama, Third Wednesday, Please See Me, Altadena Poetry Review, Art in the Time of COVID-19, and her grief memoir, I’ll Write Your Name on Every Beach: A Mother’s Quest for Comfort, Courage & Clarity After Suicide Loss (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017). She lives in Altadena, CA, with her husband, two dogs, and six chickens. Surekha spent her formative years in the beautiful hills of Nilgiris before she moved to her hometown, Thalassery, to pursue a career in fine art. Her works have been in many exhibitions across India, and most recently to “Revived Emotions,” an international exhibition at Ratchademnoen Contemporary Art Centre, Bangkok. She served as the head designer for a leading Kerala based jewelery chain for 17 years, leaving behind an oeuvre of more than 3000 designs. Painting has always been her first love, exploring the moods of nature, and finding shades, colours, tones and textures in landscapes, especially focusing on her memories of Thalassery and Nilgiris.
Global Poemic 