Covid Ghost Light

At the end of the evening
On every stage
The lamp is placed
The lamp is lit
Waiting for the next performance

This time the curtain fell hard
Almost without warning
The sound boards muffled, the
Costumes stored, the sets brought down
To save the world

And the students of the backstage
Shift from build to
Impromptu strike to a time
Without building, without making
The story come to life

But the ghost light waits for them
Warding off the plain,
The normal, the boring. Ready
To lead each back; to bring to life
The magic that lives within them

Covid Calendar

The shared calendar, techno-wonder,
Has unified our paths
Apart by miles
Together in time

Quietly connecting to the
Grand and mundane moments
Of each others' lives
Brings comfort to distance

And now we share the deleted.
The recitals, the gigs, the recordings
Each a victim, sacrificed
To save the world

But the music is only waiting
A month, a season, yearning
To fill the slots in the calendar
To fill the slots in our souls.

Why I Care

Yesterday's snow snuck in
    Overnight, mostly

A gift from this world
  Of calm
  And beauty

The forest preserve
   Stopped in time and sunshine
   A black and white image
   In this colored Milieu
   Drew a tear of joy

This world can still
   Amaze me
           Can still
   Stop my breath
   In a good way
           Can still
   Let me know
           Why I care
           Why I care

Covid Butterfly

We used to laugh and say 
 A butterfly flapped its wings in Brazil
 And triggered a tornado in Texas

We used to think of us and them
        As separate

We used to believe our oceans would
        Hinder the assault

   But now we know
           We are one
 
       Now we know
       How small an ocean is

   And now we know
       A butterfly
      Or a bat
      Or a 150 nanometer sphere

   Can trigger tornadoes
   Around the world

Friday March 20,2020

We wear this crown now daily

As peons we thought
         We dreamed
         Though unattainable
How wonderful it must be

But now, collectively
         We know
         We feel
The weight of this crown
              This corona

Saturday March 21,2020

             A      
           PLACE    
        IN   A      
S          P ACE    
SHE                 
 H      I  P        
 HE                 
S  L    I  P        
S EL        L       
      R I     CE    
S EL        L       
        I     CE    
 HEL       P        
SHE  E     P        
 HEL         L      
      R      ACE    
 HE                 
SHE                 
             A      
           P ACE    
      R I  P        
              A     
S  L    I     CE    
SHE                 
 HE          A      
S          P ACE    
SHELTER IN PLACE    

Creation II

      Not usually easy
         You find you need
            To travel outside
               The normal bounds

      While comfort sleeps (you)
         Steal away lithly
            With pen and knife
               Seeking inflection points

(you) Hack apart memory
         Hack apart dreams
            Hack apart consciousness
               Puzzle pieces all

      When you remember nothing
         When you feel nothing
            When you know nothing
         (you) Know it is close

      And now you fight
         To stay off course
            To stay off key
         (you) Stay amorphous

      Palter while you can;
         Shuffle pieces while you can
            In this collapsing void
         (you) Plunder rapaciously

      Anon the bubble fractures
         Temporal frame returning
            Brilliance fleeting
               Exhaustion blankets (you)

      With light retuning (you)
         Mine mental flotsam
            As normalcy
               Fades into existence

(you) Take these crumbs
         Injecting essence
            Into waiting veins
               Renewing the muse.

(c) 2018, Norman Dziedzic Jr.