by Amy Barone
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| ESA via MIT Technology Review |
A yellow ribbon of angst floats above.
During the lockdown, some spent days
baking bread, while a friend nearly starved
to death—driven to the ER by fear and seclusion.
A magnet for benign and wicked misfits,
I pull a mask over distress, pluck thorns
from my sides, and spend fitful nights
asleep with people still in my system.
Now that water’s been spotted there,
I think I’ll head to the moon for a swim,
embrace lunar life off the grid, get revived
on a smooth intergalactic ride, as I wave goodbye
to bugling elk, dazzles of zebras, and dozing cuttlefish.
Amy Barone’s poetry collection, We Became Summer, from New York Quarterly Books, was released in early 2018. She wrote chapbooks Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway (Foothills Publishing.) Barone’s poetry appears in Local Knowledge, Paterson Literary Review, Sensitive Skin, and Standpoint (UK). She lives in NYC.