I came up with this poem after spending the afternoon yesterday in the Emergency Room, seeking to admit my husband who had COVID symptoms. As a family member of someone who has tested positive, I have to quarantine as well and remain vigilant to symptoms. Fingers crossed, all will be well.
We have all heard much in the news about how the lessening of human activity, due to lockdowns around the world, has made ours a cleaner planet. As we go into another steep increase in COVID cases across the globe , we definitely could use some good news. Some chance of relief, or at least a lessening sense of danger and foreboding.
This election season has also seemed, in the lives of many, unnecessarily anxiety-provoking and annoying. We could just as well do without these feelings, if it weren’t so fundamental to our Nation’s well-being.
But finally today, four days after the election, it was announced that the Democratic challenger for the American Presidency has surpassed the number of electoral college votes needed, to become President-Elect.
There was much celebration in the streets on the Democratic side, and many breathed a sigh of relief, at the promise of a quieter, gentler, more boring administration, after such a tumultuous four years.
Naturally there are many hurdles to climb, before we hear a concession speech, if ever. But I still hope against hope, that this quieter period might be a chance, for the enmity to cease, and for our Nation to move forward together, as one.
Bad news and good news, all in one twenty-four hour period. Hope to have duller weeks ahead. Thanks for coming by to read!
The blues more blue,
The reds more red,
The grass a brighter green;
Yes, all the Earth
Is happy, now
That COVID’s on the scene.
The air breathes pure,
The fire ignites,
The stream, undammed, runs free;
Too bad, you can’t
Enjoy this shift,
In quarantine, with me.
What Eden now,
With Adam gone?
Who’ll steer this ship of state?
That Nature loves
Some chaos, we
Can all appreciate.
Through windows thin,
We hark the din.
How sweet, the warbled chorus!
How they rejoice,
Without our voice!
How Nature must abhor us!
The blues are blue.
The reds are red.
Lies nothing in between?
Let’s hope we find
Some peace of mind,
In this fresh quarantine.
Copyright 2020 Andrea LeDew
For a short-short story of encouragement, read Hope. For more election nonsense and rhyme see Sixty Days.
I loved your photo of “Butterfly pea plant blooming blue…” I am also happy to read in the comments that your husband’s health is OK so far. I very much like the fact that non-human nature has gotten a little break during our Covid-related slow-downs — although I am also aware that millions of families cannot pay their rent/mortgage/food bills. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Seems like exponential Covid-19 spread is accelerating again in the USA; so non-human nature may get another break in the upcoming months…
Thank you fo such a lovely comment. Butterfly peas are so beautiful when they bloom. In a smoky season i once found a sleeping bumblebee inside one blossom. I guess it was a butterfly bee. 😊
Youre right it is some small consolation that Nature enjoys the respite from human activity. Thanksfor coming by
I hope your husband has a mild case, and that you and the kids don’t catch it! Maybe the election results can provide some Quarantine Consolation. 💕
Thank you Brad. Your lips to Gods ears.
But yes, the notion, that our nation might now be steered by someone rational, does take some of the sting out of the uncertainty of a diagnosis. Now i can focus on what’s important.
Your poem is quite chilling. I hope your husband is going to be all right.
Thank you, Liz..My husband is doing well so far thanks so much!
The poem on the other hand…I’ll try to explain my meaning, though I understand that self-analysis is rarely a good idea in poetry. 😊.
And I hardly need to preach to the choir.
It seems clear that the natural world around us benefits from so many of us being stuck inside, from so many of us humans being diverted from our usual course of raping and pillaging the land. 😊
But its also true that when you, as a human, are deprived of nature, of sunlight and breezes and flowers and cool waters, you long for them instinctively.
Everything also looks more beautiful when we can’t have it. So peering through the glass of a sickroom, the garden outside blazes with color.
For years we have suffered a kind of depravation of things that previously were considered normal, morals, values, procedures, behavior in our political class, which we once took for granted. Now we long for them.
There is also the quietness, the cessation of activities that quarantine forces upon us, that can have a calming effect.
After the past few years we could all do with some calm.
And in this part of the metaphor I switch to regarding the leader, whom we are seeking to expel from our lives, even at great cost, as the illness itself.
I also meant the phrase about Adam to apply to this political season. God put Adam in Eden to rule over the Natural world, to exert dominion. So can it exist without him? Similarly, can we prosper without the one who seems to think he was placed by God in a position to exert dominion over us all, regardless of normal political processes and their decisive outcomes? Can we live without him?
Nature’s response to COVID tells us we can.
I’m glad to hear that your husband is doing well so far. Thank you for the additional context for your poem. There is no divine right of kings or dictators in this country. I think we’re finally seeing the dawning of a new day.