Belinda Subraman
Exponential 3-28-20
El Paso re-opened their gun shops.
People are stock piling
and it gives me the creeps.
Liquor stores were deemed
a necessary business
and booze is being hoarded too.
The mix of loaded guns,
alcohol and isolation
is unsettling.
Then there’s the plague.
Isolationship 3-31-20
Nearly a thousand died today in the USA
of the novel coronavirus.
I push myself to do the solitary walk outside
as my husband is not well enough to accompany me.
I’ve made a thick green womb
around a tree
in my backyard garden
I can no longer buy plants, pots or dirt
but I can split profuse aloe vera
and it likes stretching out
filling in new places it is welcome.
An aloe finger offers itself
from an elevated perch
next to my outdoor chair.
It actually curves on the end
as if it wants to be held.
I clasp its cool finger
and feel comfort
and connection to life.
Isolated in quarantine
I take comfort where I can.
I have a husband, two cats
and plants who love me.
Covid Days and Corona Nights 4-2-20
Wild animals visit
just behind the garden fence
in the “outback”
with caliche and cacti
on a steep incline.
Thankfully the fence
is a deterrent to the feral
that scatter when I open the door.
Only the odd squirrel or cat
comes near the fountain
that leaves bobcats and foxes
teased and thirsty.
I water my desert garden
of pots on concrete and gravel.
I walk out several times a day
and love it briefly
like a tourist enjoying a country
where she doesn’t live.
I take successful breaks
from media then I turn it on.
Numbers are mounting
on the tote board of death
and we’re ordered inside.
I know the yard is safe
and meditating Buddhas
near falling water
invite calm but
I’m like the feral now
surveying the land
and backing away.
I’ve made a paradise
where I can’t sit still.
It teases and leaves me thirsty.
Brief Escape Bummer 4-9-20
The trip to the fast food place
wasn’t exciting as I expected.
Three people were clumped
behind the window laughing,
one handing out food
with no mask or gloves,
yet we ate it
sitting in the car
outside a park
closed due to Covid-19.
El Paso had 225
confirmed cases today
and one death.
Quarantine felt safer,
a huddling in a womb,
cozy and familiar
with someone I love.
Home is a comfortable prison
and I just wanted to go there.
Belinda Subraman been published in 100s of magazines, printed and online, academic and small presses. She has a Master of Arts from California State University. Her archives are housed at University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Her latest book is Left Hand Dharma from Unlikely Books, 2018:
Very much like the motif of home as a ‘comfortable prison’.
Thank you so much.
Enjoy you dailey poetic meditations. Rock on linda amiga. U. Rigo de Petra.
Thank you, Rigo!
Thank you for this great project you are doing!