This is a poem I wrote for Santa Clara County Library District’s Summer Reading program to help the CA State Library document experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. I think what is most interesting about this pandemic is that we are dependent on others to safeguard our health (e.g., wearing a mask does not protect the wearer as it does those around him)- our lives are in their hands. It’s an interesting social experiment on individuals and their view of their role in a society. It was my hope to touch upon as many events (e.g., people hoarding food and toilet paper and keeping the supply from others, the socially distant car concerts in which occupants ended up getting out of their cars and crowding shoulder to shoulder anyway, the Black Lives Matter movement and protests…I could not even touch upon the economic impact or the disruption of education) and personal thoughts and feelings of what transpired since COVID-19 started to be recognized with a sense of urgency in California/The United States around early/mid- March 2020 until now (early August 2020). A lot has happened in the last 6 months (not all of it bad, as this was also an opportunity to show the best of ourselves), and it’s not possible to capture it all, or the emotions of every individual. Let the future reader/inquirer review all the material submitted and put together the overall feel of this time. This poem has no name.
COVID-19 Hijacked my dreams
Of summer with warm beaches
And the sweet taste of peaches
From March into May
I “shelter[ed] in place”
Sixty-seven straight days
I stayed, and I stayed
I cleaned and I read
Made pizza, baked bread
Called loved ones, wrote letters
…waited for things to get better
On Day 68 I no longer could wait
Food now had run low
Only one TP roll
…all the people had hoarded.
Self-quarantine now aborted
I ventured outside
Almost forgot how to drive
Then the order was lifted
But the climate had shifted
Violence and despair
Tears and glass everywhere….
Still. I stayed and I coped
And I nurtured a hope
A sacrificial delay
For one sunny day
It’s now August the 8th
And, yet, I still wait
It’s too much to ask
For others to mask….
A quarter million in Sturgis
Americans’ social urges
There are parties and bars
And concerts “in” cars
So, I sit and I dream
Of warm sand and ice cream
With nothing but faith
That maybe, one day….
Submitted by Cathy N., San Jose County – San Jose.