What Rough Beast | Covid-19 Edition | 04 27 20 | Lyndsey Weiner

Lyndsey Kelly Weiner 
Coronavirus 1 and 2

my past-husband sits in the dark in a room I’ve never seen
on the futon that used to be in our living room
laid off after one day of farm work
texted me yesterday he saw snow geese while pruning

evictions are illegal now I say
not I love you or I’m crying
picturing our old blanket around his shoulders
catastrophe is accidental close contact multiplied

*

homeschool unit on 90s rap: podcast on Biggie & Tupac

this is white privilege
that is driving while black
this is why we don’t say the n-word

that is what you say when your friends at your school of confederate flags and maga hats say it

this is where I find the magic words to keep you from saying nothing

—Submitted on

Lyndsey Kelly Weiner‘s poems have appeared in The Stonecoast Review and Tiny Seed. She holds an MFA from the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. She teaches writing at Syracuse University.

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