I hope this finds you all safe, healthy and hopeful.
I've been thinking of what is happening in our world and how all the old paradigms are shifting. Like so many of us, I'm looking for a way to process what I'm feeling, seeing and experiencing during this crazy time. I've been feeling 'Emotionally-Netflixed': immobilized by the seemingly infinite amount of different emotions within me as I toggle back and forth not knowing what to feel, day-to-day, week-to-week, moment-to-moment. Am I numb? Anxious? Angry? I can't look back, can't move forward, and feel lost in the present moment. Do any of you feel like that?
I put pen to paper to try and process. I wanted to share with you all. Maybe this will give voice to some of your feelings as well.
Light and Love to you all
Olivia D
LINES: Living in a COVID world
Lines separate
Lines divide
Corralling lines of people
Six feet apart
Standing in
Unemployment lines
Testing lines
Food lines
Living in a COVID world
In the lines of my tv I see
Lines of people
Waiting for a hand out and hand up
or working in dangerous conditions
Protesting to be heard Acquiescing behind PPE
Responding first
Appreciated last
as we stand in chorus lines cheering them on
Towards firing lines
Living in a COVID world
We feel the sting of having our pride on the line
Asking for help
We worry as we extend
Lines of credit
Tied around our necks Like yoke's on oxen
in a field of lines of red, white and blue Modern day slavery to the sharecropping middle-class
Fading into the future Living in a COVID world
Being reminded that the dividing lines
Between
The lines of the homeless and ourselves
Really was Just a paycheck away We thought if we looked Far enough down the line of our noses
They would remain just outside
Our line of sight
And now
We’re all of us
Searching for a lifeline
Living in a COVID world
We now have the timeline
To spend quality time with our
Bloodlines
Family lines
Lines of decent
Yet we chomp at the bit
Dreaming of making a beeline to our
Assembly lines
Product lines
Lines of work
Living in a COVID world
The trending line says
The curve is not flattening
And we dart around like hungry guppies
Feeding on relentless optimism (so American)
And we swallow it up
Hook line and sinker
Living in a COVID world
The pandemic frolics back and forth across the
International date line
No thought for
Nation Age Gender or Race And yet.... Color lines Finish lines To races we are losing
Yes Even in the COVID era
Black lives still matter
Living in a COVID world
Lines between
Black/White
Straight/Gay
Rich/Poor
Together/Alone
Educated/Illiterate
Blue/White collar
Capitalist/Socialist
Asses/Elephants
Comedy/Tragedy
Sacred/Profane
Them/Us
You/Me
Me/Myself
Living in a COVID world
Lines are cracks Revealing fissures in our
Healthcare Finances Self-worth Fault-lines give way to Tech-tonic shifts and quakes in our
Lack of leadership
Federal responses
Living in a COVID world
Lines of bullshit
Falling from mouths
On a daily basis
"BREAKING NEWS"
Blurring the lines of
Truth Reality
While lines of people die for lack of
Ventilators
Medicine
Tests
Living in a COVID world
Power Lines In elections Forced to choose between my vote and my health
Formed to withstand madmen in white houses Our POTUS - Punchline of the United States
Powerlines Downed by storms Drawing direct through lines from their intensity
To the globe’s warming baseline
Living in a COVID world
Lines around my eyes
From lack of sleep
Lines across my forehead
From palpable fears
Lines etched around my mouth
From mega doses of anxiety
Living in a COVID world
Timelines
Marking
My life
Your life
How much of that line is drawn
How much of that line is left
Living in a COVID world
A spider's web is a series of lines
Connecting together
Growing from the center
If I am at the center How many lines do I have connecting to others
How does my line connect to you
How strong/weak are those connections
In this socially distant era
Living in a COVID world
Hey! Get back across the line!
Line up against the wall!
Don’t think you and I are aligned
But maybe we are Because you feel EXACTLY
The same way I do The fear The trepidation The side-eye Comes from opposite sides of the line Meeting in the middle at a common crossroads which
As we know Is just the intersection of two lines Is this the deal we inked when we signed
On the dotted line Perhaps it’s written in our stars Or the way our planets are aligned
Through no fault (lines) of our own We walk together
Toeing the line
Marching towards an uncertain
End of the line
Living in a COVID world
Copyright O. Dawson 2019
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