Love in the Time of Covid-19...

as we move in slow motion through a new normal...or abnormal...I am flooded with thoughts...things I want to write...poetry I'd like to create...but it is quickly consumed by the barrage of news seeping in at all times...life as we now know it has in a sense become a series of book titles...catch-22...the sound and the fury...brave new world...the plague...oh, no...sounds like a pitch for another lame network show...Seinfeld!...am I Jerry or George?...but the book titles...it was that moment last week as we descended into the rabbit hole that I thought of this book title...is covid our cholera?...and will my mind and these fingers ever reach the genius of Gabriel Garcia Marquez?...I think not...after all, I did submit my latest poem to Rattle's weekly Poets Respond contest...and they didn't respond...so it's back to the keyboard...trying to give voice...and words...to all the feelings these harsh days..the fear...the anger...the love...and the hope struggling deep within...today is Stephen Sondheim's 90th birthday...I'm looking at the tickets on my desk for the revival of "Company"...end of April...and the reality with each new statistic is that those tickets are toast...but I came across this Sondheim quote today..."art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos"...yes it is...as I keep writing in the time of covid-19...

Life during wartime...

there is nothing more obsolete than a post about the coronavirus...covid 19...what we know is ever-changing...what we are told by talking heads (all irony intended...pay attention to this title) sounds like a 4-year-old telling a joke...no beginning, no end...just a bloated middle and no punch line...today I looked at twitter to torture myself...to see what form of panic is trending...and idiocy...so today's term was boomer remover...yes, the latest generation...gen z...laughingly tweets that boomers have destroyed everything and covid 19 is karma...they are tweeting this on $1000 cell phones that mommy bought who may be a boomer herself...eyeroll please...hey, miss gen z...I too rallied at a generation before me...the silent generation and its patriarchy...I rolled my eyes...and when I felt no one valued me and my world was crumbling below my feet....I blasted the angst of Janis Ian...who was the Alanis Morissette before the Billie Eilish...originality is an overrated term...but I digress...generational finger pointing aside...this is what I do know...it is morally wrong to hide your head in the sand and be cavalier about this disease...it is pummeling Italy as I write...as it did in China...don't be misled and have some false sense of security because your youth lets you check a different age box on a doctor's form than me...or those one generation up...and in your fear don't deny anyone their need to pray to their god in this troubled time...or also not to pray...please admit that maybe it's more than time to revere brilliant scientific minds again...from all corners of the globe...and in all languages...because make no mistake...however we get to the other side of this...there will be another virus looming in the distance...how we decide to move forward globally on the other side of covid 19 will have enormous ramifications...for all generations...especially those yet to come...this ain't no party...this ain't no disco...this ain't no fooling around...

the search for signs of intelligent life in the universe...

well, I've watched the 3 millionth Democratic debate...and I'll break it down for you...in one corner there are three grumpy old men fighting about pinochle...then there's their retired school teacher mediating...in another is the 8th grade debate team champion getting his ear pulled by the wannabe cool mom...oh, and in between is another billionaire asking everyone to sing kumbaya...of course, if red is your color...you get "caronavirus" "covfefe" and Pence...I keep picturing a Covid 19 breakthrough...the female scientist rushes into Pence's office...he can't be alone with her...omg...we are so fucked...there's no more eloquent way to describe it...we are polarized...plagued...and still in shitty movie season...serenity now!...there was a false report a few days ago...it said that 38% of Americans would not drink a Corona anymore...out of fear they would contract the virus...the saddest thing was it sounded plausible...we do not read anymore...we do not value great minds...or the beauty in intelligent debate...we do not value those who teach our children...we live by our phones...we worship at the fountain of celebrity...readily forgive the indiscretions of celebrities over our family and friends...faith is a charlatan shilling on Sunday morning television not the priest looking at empty pews...and it leaves me looking at the stars...wondering about parallel universes and about signs of intelligent life in the deep velvet night sky...praying for deep pause in fractured times...