Marc Beuttler
Outside My Window
Outside my window, how far it all seems
As stories inside stream and stream,
China, Italy, South Korea; foreign
Today is much more familiar.
Nurse, electrician, postman, teacher,
Mother, father, sister, brother,
You are not just another number—
Why does it take death
For us to see one another?
But outside my window the sun still shines,
The water is still wet and the shade still cool
Where beneath tall trees children run
Laughing, happy to be free from school.
Outside my window, still life.
—Submitted March 20, 2020
Marc Beuttler, a dermatology resident in New Orleans, was the 2017 winner of the Alpha Omega Alpha nationwide Pharos poetry award.
SUBMIT to What Rough Beast via our SUBMITTABLE site.
If you enjoyed today’s poem and you value What Rough Beast, consider making a donation to Indolent Books, a nonprofit poetry press.