What Rough Beast | Covid-19 Edition | 05 13 20 | Cheryl Dumesnil

Cheryl Dumesnil
This Spring

is my wife’s sweating
nightmares and the man

waiting at the bus stop
with a gas mask strapped

to his face and the green
hillside which is fire

season in the making,
and my neighbor who

reports another break-in
in broad daylight and Is

this the new normal?
the radio asks, and this

spring is empty drug store
shelves where rubbing

alcohol and flu remedies
used to be, and this

spring is Four gallons of
bottled water for every

family member and Don’t
panic and This is not

a drill, and this spring is
furlough and layoff

and non-essential and
voters who don’t think

a woman is electable—
And these are female

voters, the radio says—
and this spring is Next up:

a Bay Area chef
who lives in a camper

with two kids because
she can’t afford rent,

and this spring is the near-
dead fig tree turning

new leaves toward
the sun in a gesture

of forgiveness, which is
in no way an answer, but

still, I stop driving and
look up for a while.

—Submitted on 

Cheryl Dumesnil is the author of the poetry collections Showtime at the Ministry of Lost Causes (2016) and In Praise of Falling (2009), both from the University of Pittsburgh Press. She is the author of the memoir Love Song for Baby X (Ig Publishing, 2013). Dumesnil is a co-author of the anthologies We Got This: Solo Mom Stories of Grit, Heart, and Humor (SheWrites Press, 2019) and Dorothy Parker’s Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos (Warner Books, 2002). She lives in Northern California with her two children and her wife, Sarah. Dumesnil blogs at thecrisisdiaries.com. Her website is cheryldumesnil.com.

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