Friday, May 15, 2020

SHELTER-IN-PLACE

On either side 
of these neighborhood streets, 
the once rag-and-bone 
branches of trees 
are now growing long 
and brawny with spring rain;

soon enough, the tips 
of their fingers may grow 
to touch over the center of these roads, 
forming a thick dome 
over the homes and apartments below—
so much the better to cradle and hold 

the fragile expectations 
of all those who dwell there,
to protect such heretofore 
unexampled frustrations, to keep
such extraordinary solitude from escaping 
or being exposed.