The Poetry Marathon

Covid 19!
We hail the!
You thought us remote working
You thought us to stare at ourselves from a distance
You thought us to use nose masks
You thought us to use sanitizers
You thought us to shop on line
You thought us to avoid any form of touch
You thought us that hugs and kisses are not indispensable
You thought us to look inwards and not outwards
You thought us self sufficiency
Covid 19, we hail thee!

The hum of the cottage AC fills the evening air
Empty bottles decorate the porch with diffracted light
Heat pitter patters on the Midwestern breeze,
As fireflies emerge for their nightly performance

This ode to classic Americana has faded into the fringes
With its purpose fulfilled, it lies waiting for a new suitor

Zoom

Zoom is the new meeting place,
The cool place to be.
Safe behind closed doors
We open virtual lives to each other.

This is the strange new normal,
Waving into screens miles apart,
Choosing virtual backgrounds
More real than our homes.

Conversation buzzes brightly,
Like fireflies in summer heat.
A small bottle of time,
Unreal and unmasked.

One day when the MASKS come off,
And forgotten smiles touch us once again,
It might be STRANGE but,
We will have learned to listen to unsaid words,
Of songs that speak of love and pain.

One day when the air is clean
We will leave our COTTAGES, and breathe anew.
To take in life, but give back much more than just ZOOM calls,
Knowing we’ve won the battle of “many” and “few”.

One day when this all makes sense
When every tear is wiped, every heart is lit like a FIREFLY,
Maybe we will look back and tell ourselves,
It wasn’t the easiest puzzle, but yes, I did my bit.

One day….

Under the light of the moon
Silver and unsure
I ponder

What was it all for?

The gatekeeping
The anger
The hate
The superiority complex

The sun and the moon
Both celestial beings
Each wonderful
In their own ways

But they share the sky
Giving each other
The chance
To be the center
Of the universe

We are all made of stardust
Like the sun
Like the moon

So if they can share the sky
Why can’t we?

Come, wildcat! Come, tiger!

Courageous and strong

They stand on hind legs

And join in the song 

Of cedar, doug fir, maple, and pine 

To the canopy, their roars rise higher

to a river of starlight above fragrant woods

they play and leap a dance ‘round the pyre

Lost in a trance and well rapt in dreaming

I hold out my hand to some startling phantasm

And see 

that it is as real as I am

prompt 9 hour 9

loathly zoom meetings

staring at the tree line

hovering just beyond the strange drone of

the zoom meeting

lulling me in this heat

into lethargy

trapped like porridge in a bottle

and just as willing to move.

I mask my disdain for idiots in meetings

through the click of a button

to a black screen,

deciding to go chase fireflies at the cottage

instead.

© r. l. elke

Can you bottle the fireflies 
that dance in the night?
Can you harness the wind 
from butterflies in flight?
Can you steal the heat from the sun
or the moon from the sky?
Can you hold the treeline hostage 
while the sunset comes alive?
Impossible as it may seem, I believe you can
after all, you made this strange heart beat again

‘summer night…perfection of thought…’

   with apologies to Wallace Stevens ~

Despite the rain, the fireflies flicker.

At the treeline, they hang in branches

diamante on blue so dark it burns.

Our house becomes a cottage

in the dark, shrinks strangely

in the summer heat, its recent build

only a mask for four walls and a fence.

A gentle lethargy falls on us – velvety,

still. Cicadas sing, moths dart into light.

The night descends.

The fireflies light up the night sky

excited to have been let free

bottled up for seasons past

their light masked by snowflakes.

Now excited to be seen

lighting up the treeline

showing the heat of their passion

their fire- willpower.