My good friend and I Dawn Surratt began a project together when this pandemic began. Sharing images and poems, creating diptychs and inventions to help us navigate this time together. You can check it out at Touchstones or follow us on Instagram @touch__stones. It’s been such a support and inspiration working with Dawn through this time. Here’s my most recent post.
I lie awake, alert
to the scritchscratch
of the night raiders
launching their assault
against the stoic coop.
Their small babyhands, human-like;
panda eyes, needle teeth.
Night thoughts -
like drunken flies
circling the light,
can find no purpose
or direction,
just random, panicked,
instinct.
I turn, and hear
a rustle in the woods,
my eyes snap, open.
thinking not thinking —
Breathe.
Dilemmas,
like pebbles in my mouth
rolling over and over;
my tongue
smoothes their contours
with relentless
consideration,
reconsidering.
Today, tomorrow
then, now, before, after,
this, that, how, which way —
when?
No answers
from the night.
Just the leaves,
whispering their lullaby
for the dreamless.