by Janet Leahy
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How will our story be told, a world
in mourning for the millions who have died.
Who will write the score for the new
requiem, our sense of loss overwhelms,
day by day we feel the dread of what
may come next. How will a new symphony
hold the pain of pandemic, will the cello
anchor the gravitas with a call to prayer,
will strings of violins rage against
the virus, will the oboe conjure healing
in the slow low notes of a minor key.
Is a musician at her piano today,
arranging chords to evoke
the pain of isolation, the fear of Covid.
Does she know her music will save us,
will redeem our lapses into despair.
I think of composers from the past…
will a new Mozart, Verdi, Dvorak, arrange
dissonant chords to tell this story,
a Requiem Mass for Our World.
Janet Leahy is a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. Her poems have recently been published in Halfway to the North Pole, the Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar 2021, and Art in so Many Words. She has published two collections of poetry.