Two Poems

by James Baldwin

HOPE
29 March 2020

Have you ever seen sunrises this brilliant?

And sunsets this dramatic?

The sky so azure, so clear?

Venus and moon dancing together like fireworks.

Maybe this is the gift of Covid-19.  It’s given us the time to see that our planet was fouled.

By us.

And can be cured. Only by us.

All we needed was the time to notice.

Photo credit, James Baldwin, 2020.

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CORONA

My wife is sitting in a chair facing the back yard.  I sit opposite her reading.  Self quarantining, we are in no hurry.

She is in her morning competition with The New York Times crossword puzzle.  

“Golden Flashes.  Three letters,” she commands.

“K. S. U.,” I say. 

“K. S. U.?”

“Yeah. The Kent State U Golden Flashes. Can you believe the worthless shit I know?”

“That’s why I love you,” she says.