Undaunted by the Invisible
William Doreski has published three critical studies and several collections of poetry. His work has appeared in many print and online journals. He has taught at Emerson College, Goddard College, Boston University, and Keene State College. His most recent book is Stirring the Soup. williamdoreski.blogspot.com
By William Doreski
Monday in a purple moment,
the cloud cover not quite a shroud.
In the little park the silver light
falls on mothers chasing tots
across slabs of lawn just mown
by town employees grinning
through scruffs of weekend beard.
The blistering hues of flowers
around the rim of the park
fence the children from traffic
on Grove Street and the surge
of the carefully dammed river.
We watch the mothers dancing
about with their giggling kids
and discuss the lack of future.
Maybe the virus will grind down
the population till we return
to subsistence farming and starve
with genuine classical dignity.
Maybe our feckless politics
will trigger nuclear war and scorch
the last of rhetoric forever.
We can only be ourselves—
you with your flamethrower gaze,
me sheepish enough for a shepherd.
The park boils over in the glare.
The hottest summer on record,
and we must mask against disease
that hardly ever speaks aloud.
Undaunted by the invisible,
the children perk in flimsy clothes
while their mothers trample the earth
the way mothers always have,
chasing after the children who
will outrun them all their lives.