Susan Dambroff
Mindfulness in Quarantine
Sit and know you are sitting
at the kitchen table
on your doorstep
on a city peak
under a blaze
of shimmering trees
Walk and know you are walking
with a friend
the poignant space between
or alone
your own
precious interior
See and know you are seeing
a man who jumps rope
on a deserted
schoolyard
wild onions and dandelions
between sidewalk cracks
Listen and know you are listening
sparrow
chickadee
dove
two violinists 6 feet apart
serenading the sidewalk
Grieve and know you are grieving
each empty storefront
each untended goodbye
Give and know you are giving
food money poems
for those who don’t have enough
Breathe
and know you are breathing
belly heart lungs
belly heart lungs
belly heart lungs
for all those who can’t
—Submitted on 05/12/2020
Susan Dambroff is the author of Conversations with Trees (Finishing Line Press, 2018) and Memory in Bone (Black Oyster Press, 1984). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she works as a teacher.
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