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 May 2020
james nordlund
Sans separation,

"...we(e),...", social distance, wear masks,

enjoy Sun, trees, breeze.
Haiku (Qatar Airways, JetBlue and Delta Air Lines are giving away 100,000 free airline tickets each to employed healthcare workers)    :)   reality
 May 2020
james nordlund
The rain welcomed me, as it was
I am to be this gray day.
Unending unraveling, seemingly,
corona's as the concrete, grey.

My roots always reaching
the rich brown Earth beneath,
strengthen my stride,

as walking through it am I.
To where or what I do not know,
for, discovery of life is stalking.
Yet, I'll be in the moment so,
if and when I can I will fly.

In each day I pray to be that I,
what, where, how, when,
who and sometimes why.
For, uplifting life isn't a task.

So, though the Sun's light is masked,
this night that's the virus' day won't last.
As it's direction, clear and bright,
does glean through the clouded
cover of covid's night.

Still, this walk that's walking me,
is what reality is to be.
And while these flaming embers glow,
I'll walk this path with life so ....

Yet, to you I do entreat,
if and when you two meet,
will you allow for the you to be,
and not recede from reality.

So, that to this day all that have gone,
leaving you this to carry on,
will have their potential realized as well,
let evolution be the bell.
(Fore soothed by All.  Thanx to Orleans for the title lyric of their great song, quoted above as title)
 May 2020
james nordlund
Your living was a gift.
Your life taken shows us
All how we're not being.
Taking our own lives,
In effect, by not doing
All we can.
You may be dead, yet,
Still, you give us insight,
That we're not fully alive.
May your memory be
A constant reminder of
What we lose when
We fail to be,
That being everything.

Cops asked an African man,
In N.Y.C., "show us I.D."?
He reaches for his wallet,
Before he can even pull it out
His body's riddled with 20 bullets,
The cops reload, shoot him with 20 more,
Making sure he couldn't live to tell.
In memory of the assassination of Amadou Diallo, 2-4-1999; posted in memory of Ahmaud Arbery, who was assassinated on 2-23-20 by an ex-police officer and his son; Breonna Taylor, who was assassinated on 3-13-20 by police; and George Floyd, who was assassinated on 5-25-20 by police   :)   reality
 May 2020
Walter W Hoelbling
burning rain forests
wild animals with shrinking space to live
growing air pollution
smog in major cities
more than 3,5 million deaths
     due to respiratory diseases
global warming
new insects and other beasties
    in the formerly cooler regions
extreme hurricanes  rainstorms  heatwaves
excessive use of fertilizers by agro-industries
bees are dying
blossoms are left unpollinated
biodiversity is in a flat spin
deserts keep growing globally
fossile fuels are still polluting the air
curious dolphins die in the water of the Thames

after so far hundreds of thousands died of Covid-19
it is high time to see the larger picture
to comprehend interactive phenomena

the pandemic brought earth a little recovery time
the waters have cleared
you can actually see fish in the canals of Venice
satellite pictures show clear air over metropolises

suggesting: the new normality after the pandemic
must be significantly different from the old one

do we really need hundreds of thousands to die?
does it need a virus for us to understand

that we need a different relationship to nature?!!
 May 2020
Walter W Hoelbling
the days of the week
have lost their shapes
they are now septuplets
difficult to keep apart
melting into each other

an endless loop

mornings
     afternoons
                  nights
mornings
     afternoons
                   nights …

difficult to track time
clocks run in circles
history morphs to perpetual now

only the weather changes
nature remains unimpressed
      by our problems
lockdown present history time weekdays
 May 2020
Walter W Hoelbling
invisible
yet possibly deadly
it empties streets
makes us quarantine
cities  regions  nations
hits us unprepared
reminds us that pandemics
can also happen in our time

a few days ago I walked downtown
a strange quietness filled the air
made me react to noises and sounds
I had not even noticed
when streets were full with people and cars

     even the wail of distant ambulance sirens
     sounded louder and more ominous

I only saw occasional joggers
a few women airing their pet dogs
more bicycled food deliveries than usual

they hardly acknowledged my existence
glances did not meet
my friendly nods were rarely returned

we have all become solitary strangers
keeping their safe distance
pandemic quietness emptiness distance strangers
These times apart seem such a strain,
a heartfelt emotional loss;
But now we must think of the common good,
and fulfill a worthwhile cause.

People wracked with pain and suffering,
an ominous sign for retreat;
Yet just when we most need intimacy,
this intensity bears repeating.

The smartest move is not to move,
and remain inside for awhile;
We'll see one another soon enough,
when powerful sources quash the fire.

Still our minds take a daily route,
through webs of life's complexities;
And wonderment will fill the ache,
if hope can set our spirits free.
 May 2020
Eloisa
Shadows, memories
Blindly chased the bitter storms
Wild dreams in daylight
I have kissed boys

Girls

People in between

But lately I have been kissing bottles

Their lips are colder than yours

But slowly I have realized that the pounding headache when I wake is less hurtful than the shattering in my chest

Yet as these toxins rush through my veins

I can't help but miss the tracing of your fingers along my skin

Miss the numbness of the world when you lie with me

But when I wake I remember that a headache is treated with an aspirin

While heartache

Well if you have a cure for Heartache let me know
 May 2020
james nordlund
Dictating the Winter of our extermination to come, has surpassed their
class war's liquidation of ases and assets of the masses en masse's
increased rate of blitzkreiging Gaia's children to their extinction.

Now that the middle-class to rich are facing the extermination rate that
the lower-middle-class to poor have always faced, they're making haste to
align with not-sees, totalitarians in control, few celebrity supremacists

Mimic repub's and **** admin's opening the country now criminal insanity,
For they don't give a hoot that it will dictate at least 100,000 extra
murdered, they want their $ now.  And corona concentration camps are

Dictated to be by repub's, ****'s executive ordering meat and poultry
packing plants to stay open, regardless of them being extreme incubators
of virus, lacking: enough ppes, following CDC safe distance, etc., rules.

Also, in nursing homes where 30 % of covid fatalities have occurred, due
to similar failings, and prisons, where testing is done least, tragically.
Those workers are threatened with layoffs, arrests if they don't show up.

They're forced to work and aren't properly protected from the virus, they
may not get it in the next 5 minutes, but might, might next day, next
week, month, will get it most certainly if nothing changes and 5 % will

be murdered by it, dictated by the gov't and it's criminally insane rules
to make believe reality and truth aren't, to "help **** get re-elected".
All, going along instead of impeaching, removing **** now to save lives.
Might might make right, but, it always makes wrong.  CDC's 64 page guidelines for re-opening areas turned into 17 pages, then less and isn't "going to see the light of day", ****; almost irrelevant because ****'s reiterated that "no one has to follow his admin's own guidelines".  'Going along to get along' is death now.  Thanx for all you All do; have a good day    :)   reality
 May 2020
irinia
Of patience, I know only
what sea turtles have taught me:
how they are born on lightless
beaches so the moon can serve
as a beacon to lure them
into the water; how they spend
their whole lives trying to swim
towards it, enamored, obsessed;
how they flap their forelimbs,
a vague recollection of flying -
the right movement in the wrong
medium, as if they knew how
to reach the moon in a former life
but now only remember the useless
persistent motions; how if you cut
one's heart out it would keep
beating in the pit of your palm,
recognizing the cold night air.

by Ariel Francisco from Best New Poets 2016 50 Poems from Emerging Writers
 May 2020
james nordlund
Awakened, illimitable potential, indivisible
as life, you, can stop them and their coronaing
All.  If one doesn't die to the life every moment,
then they not only never have lived, but, will not
rise from those ashes, as a phoenix in flight
dives and dashes up that cross, more deftly
in finality, unto a wondrous plain, it's the plain
boss, the plain.  If you're not taking bullets
you are making them. This Mother's Day, leave no
footprints that followed none, which will echo
on in all ways, always, abolish fossil fuels use,
walk in nature's balance, giving back to her
abundance, each one reach and teach one, to
turn 360 degrees around, back to the evolution
and future, humanity will only have if you do.
The 'big fix' is in, if it ain't fixed don't
break it. Vote early, protect, occupy and GOTV,
be well, viva la vida, solidaridad, la evolucion.
Good Mother's Day to All mothers.  Thanx for all you All do and don't; have an excellent eve'   :)   reality
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