top of page

Sheila E. Murphy

Pandemic Sequence

 

people 

grew hysterical

regarding toilet paper

 

making a mad 

rush into 

stores

 

lacking 

usual supplies

shoppers tried China

 

buying in bulk 

single sordid 

looking 

 

sheets 

no one 

would want unless

 

desperate it did 

not come 

to

 

(whew) 

that supply

chain issues rectified

 

themselves eventually but

on the 

matter 

 

of 

quiet and

masks suppressing psyches

 

many lost their

social skills

solitude

 

replaced 

natural interaction                                                       

various geniuses began 

 

projects meant to 

last weeks 

years

 

if 

it came

to that production

 

replaced connection with

one's own 

company

 

those 

who wanted

meditation and peace

 

enrolled in online 

yoga breathing 

class 

 

just 

imagine how 

confinement felt in

 

homes with domestic

abuse and 

violence

 

victims 

trying to

tame aggressive drivers

 

also aggressive at 

home thereby 

thieving

 

whatever 

facsimile of 

peace was left

 

meanwhile desiring the 

removal of                                                                  

perps

 

morning 

routinely chipped

away afternoon dimmed

 

felt like barbed

wire stretched

across 

 

lifespan

news repeated 

unforgiving status quo

 

and the TV

showed no 

sports

 

parties 

could not 

happen nothing could

 

provide relief from 

what counted 

as

 

human 

warmth simulating

normally lived life

 

whatever normal might

appear to

be

 

now 

all this 

seems past tense 

 

fable 

of fear 

the subtraction of

 

anything casual spontaneous

every activity                                                              

planned

 

one 

long episode

minus human contact

Sheila E. Murphy (born Mishawaka, Indiana USA (1951) is the author of 45 books of poetry. Poems have appeared in Poetry, Hanging Loose, Fortnightly Review, and numerous others. Most recent books are Permission to Relax (BlazeVOX Books, 2023) October Sequence: Sections 1-51 (mOnocle-Lash Anti-Press,  2023), and
Sostenuto (Luna Bisonte Prods (2023). Murphy received the Gertrude Stein Award for Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003). Murphy's book titled Reporting Live from You Know Where (2018) won the Hay(na)Ku Poetry Book Prize Competition from Meritage Press (U.S.A.) and xPress(ed) (Finland). Her Wikipedia page can be found at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Murphy

Please Wait While We Update Your Protection

 

Help the shelf is

Drying the impeccable 

Fascicle under the weigh

Of wings left

Thereon a phenomenon

Fiery like capsicum

On the tongue

Matching phlox 

In frame containing

A busy pencil

Poking prodding

Southerly winds

Beneath cloud 

Cover

triangle_small
spikes
bedroom tax
Sheriff Stars

thistles stretch their prickly arms afar

Black Triangle
Disrupt and Upset

Militant Thistles

prickling the politics of "permanent austerity"

bottom of page