Cool Announcement: A Freebie, Rubber-Ball Days

My Dear Friends:

I'm happy to share with you this exciting news: NeverEnding Story contributor, Dave Read, published a  collection of tanka, titled Rubber-Ball Days: A Chapbook of Lockdown Tanka, and shared his fine work as a free download available at his blog, Dave Read Poetry.

Selected Tanka:

a cool breeze

pushes its way

through my window —

the chill

of self-isolation

the pantry’s stuffed

with food

for weeks

we nibble

a side of hope

trying to help

flatten the curve

I cinch in

my belt

one more notch

remaining inside

for self-isolation

we infect

each other’s

moods  

he asks me

when the pandemic

will end —

I study the slope

of his shoulders

his workplace

announces

a new round of layoffs —

he muffles his thoughts

with a mask

bouncing inside

our rubber-ball days

the deafening

echoes

of boredom

sandcastles line

the now open beach —

we await

the next wave

of the virus

And yesterday marked the end of the second month of the WHO pandemic announcement, share with you the selected entries of my Coronavirus Poetry Diary, Second Month:

Opening Up America Again

the size of this billboard

seen from my attic window

quarantined
for weeks in an attic
of shadows ...
I open the window
to birdsong and my heart

balcony concert

my dog and I sing along

to LeanOnMe

a tired nurse

opens the bedside window

my friend's voice

flows in with the night breeze

as his mother's eyes close

this scent

of breezy sunshine ...

Hillary Clinton

wears a black mask

with VOTE in white letters

FYI: I’ve got the must-have accessory for spring. I’m wearing a mask (and voting!) for my country, my community, and my grandchildren. -- Hillary Clinton, The Hill, May 2

lockdown lifted

still no handshake, no hug, no kiss

fading into the dark

brown spots

in the front lawn

spring rain

tapping on the window

and my quarantined mind

Repetition

for Søren Kierkegaard who called his melancholy “the most faithful mistress I have known."

death toll rising...
in illness and in fear
alone
with my drunken shadow
apart together

quarantined for weeks
with my drunken shadow
in the attic
I tanka-barricade the door
to my mistress's chamber

in dim light
my quarantined mind races
back and forth
between the old and new normal:
this world of masked faces

Happy Reading

Chen-ou