What Rough Beast | Covid-19 Edition | 05 01 20 | Adam Oyster-Sands

Adam Oyster-Sands
Mary Oliver wrote that she was worried

Everyone could understand that particular poem

It seems to be the prevailing feeling of the day

And I know I’m not alone in my worry

Surely someone in Turkmenistan also fears

The fires on the horizon and

The virus on a cruise ship

New fears erasing the previous ones

Clear backpacks and bump stocks in a movie theater

And it didn’t snow this winter

But a few years ago it seemed we’d never see that

Sun reflecting off swollen rivers on a warm day

Beauty is a word we can no longer spell

Barely recognizable these days

Among the barrage of shit spilling from

Every available screen pointed in my direction

An awful phone call from my dad

As we worked in the yard and built something

With our hands, cracked and dry

with soap, scrubbing, and the cool early spring air

In the evening my partner and I drank beer

And we looked at a thing that existed because of us

Because we took the time to build and

We measured and connected the separate pieces

Together we made a bed for new life

Completed and whole and usable and new

They say a hummingbird’s nest is the size of

A tiny thimble easily overlooked in the pruning

The sun rising over the tree line this morning

A simple routine providing clarity of thought

A necessary reminder that

We live in hope

Though hope may be as fragile as the thimble nest

And until the heralded end arrives

And until we finally bid our worries goodbye

May we find our song in the morning light

Adam Oyster-Sands is a high school English teacher in Portland, Ore. He holds a BA from Dallas Baptist University and MA in humanities from the University of Dallas.

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