Poem During the Plague: Poem 42

Karen Friedland

A nonprofit grant writer by day, Karen Friedland’s poems have been published in Nixes Mate Review, Writing in a Women’s Voice, the Lily Poetry Review, Vox Populi and others. She currently has a poem hanging on the walls of Boston’s City Hall, selected by Boston’s Poet Laureate. Her book of poems, Places That Are Gone, was published in 2019 by Nixes Mate Books, and she has a chapbook forthcoming in late 2020. Karen is a member of Cervena Barva Press, and is a founding member of the Boston-based Poetry Sisters collective published in Nixes Mate Review, Writing in a Women’s Voice, the Lily Poetry Review, Vox Populi and others. She currently has a poem hanging on the walls of Boston’s City Hall, selected by Boston’s Poet Laureate. Her book of poems, Places That Are Gone, was published in 2019 by Nixes Mate Books, and she has a chapbook forthcoming in late 2020. Karen is a member of Cervena Barva Press, and is a founding member of the Boston-based Poetry Sisters collective.

A COVID Spring                                                                                            

                                                                                                                       

The new pale green leaves are holy,

are hanging in there,

whipped as they are by the cold May wind.

The sun still sets

between the same two houses,

and the same evening trees

still get shot through with gold.

Earlier, 

I joked with my favorite teller

about her artistic sister

who lives in Colorado—

we laughed and nodded through our masks,

understanding about half

of what was said.

It’s 2020,
and the spring robins

still stand their ground.