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