What Rough Beast | 07 17 20 | C. Christine Fair

C. Christine Fair
Hooking Up in a Time of Coronavirus

I called Safina today to check on her invalid mother in Pakistan.

Rather than being sad or even worried, she was joyous and exuberant.

“I feel so guilty. But, honestly, I’m on my honeymoon!”

She explained that she ran into her delicious ex, stocking up on produce at the Giant.

Now, they are “co-isolating.”

She conceded “We have no future. But we have no other place to be.”

—Submitted on 05/26/2020

C. Christine Fair writes: I am a professor of security studies at Georgetown University in the School of Foreign Service. My most recent book is In Their Own Words: Understanding the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (Oxford University Press, 2019). About the poem, Fair writes: Integral to this piece is a charcoal sketch of an erotic radish which is redolent of a couple engaging in intimacy.

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