poem-a-day challenge: totally empty

For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Total (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “Total Madness,” “Total Victory,” “Totally Awesome,” and/or “Total Cereal.” — Robert Lee Brewer, Writer’s Digest

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totally empty

ok not really
actually I think I am coping OK
but there are moments
I feel totally empty

I can’t go to work
and now sleeping’s off-schedule

not allowed to see my mom:
all visitors prohibited
to keep the community healthy

my kid can’t come home
because dad sees patients with COVID19
so it’s safer for us to stay isolated

I comment on Facebook,
visit friends on Zoom
take a nap when I need it
read when my attention span allows
bake and sew like a century ago

and the days go by
inexorably closer to
whatever happens next

so much to take in
but still

totally empty

national poetry month kicks off — it's a new world

April is National Poetry Month! This gorgeous commemorative poster is from poets.org by student poster contest winner Samantha Aikman, based on the poem “Remember” by U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.
✏️
So 2020 will be my third year celebrating by writing a poem a day based on prompts from Robert Lee Brewer, senior editor with Writer's Digest. Today’s prompt was to write a new world poem.
✏️
Trees burst into leaf
Seemingly overnight
At the very moment of the equinox
Early on the calendar because of leap year
•
Birds are singing their heads off
Building nests
Including in places we don’t want them
Laying eggs there in the bush by the front doorway
Did I scare them away when I got a step stool and looked in the nest?
I didn’t mean for them to abandon their eggs
I could have used a different door
To leave the house for a while
It’s not as if I’m leaving the house much
Anyway
•
Parts of nature are
Proceeding as usual
And then parts of nature
Are doing things they’ve never done
And I don’t know how to feel about it
And I don’t know what to do about it
•
So I stay home
And I wash hands
And I sew masks
And I try not to dwell
On the fact that every day
My other half
Goes to his “essential” job
Where some days he’s at his office
Mostly seeing patients by telehealth,
But others, like today, he’s at the hospital
And we are pretty sure
That one day, maybe even today,
He’ll come home with this virus
And I’ll get it too
•
So we don’t see our moms
And our kid stays away at school
And we hope for the best
•
And in some ways I wish
That we could just have it and get it over with,
But it might hit us hard
Even though we are youngish and healthy
•
The world has never seen this before
And you just never know
•
You never know
❤️
💙
💛

Also I wanted to add that the "new world poem" prompt made me think of a song I love by Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas. It's a song that feels very optimistic to me. Check it out here. And while I was looking for that, I found a version from a year later by Nina Simone, still beautiful, but much more apocalyptic in tone. Do yourself a favor and listen to both. Which resonates more with you?