Susan Goodman
Quarantine
As if the world could snap straight
As if it were waiting for the word
As if waiting were the point
As if each of us sees it
One way and the thing it wants
Is to do it, its way, and so this
As if there were nowhere near
A way elsewhere so we double
Double back thinking how
The sky might edge indoors
And travel along with us
As if we could wand our selves, stay
What we were, move on our own
Sidewalks, as if we could be soothed
By our own replies.
—Submitted on 05/25/2020
Susan Goodman’s poems have appeared in The Columbia Review, Barrow Street, and Nixes Mate Review. A recipient of the George Edward Woodberry Poetry Prize at Columbia University, she is a nonprofit and magazine copywriter in New York City.
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