Captivation
Catherine Harnett: I'm a poet and fiction author originally from New York, now living in the D.C. area. Three books of my poetry have been published, and numerous short stories appear in national and international magazines. During COVID there is no earthly reason I can say I'm too busy to write. A small comfort.
By Catherine Harnett
We’ve been considerate for months, distant,
masked, six feet apart, our hands clean; and wait
to leave home, praying for the insistent
virus to surrender. Seized lungs deflate,
take breath away; we beg for air: I can’t
breathe, I can’t breathe, can’t bear this awful weight,
can’t breathe. No respirator can recant
death’s claim, no regimen can undo fate.
We avert our eyes as cold trucks are packed
with dead, potter’s holes are dug, glass plates shield
the living from the gone. Then him: a black
man killed by four badged men who then concealed
what they’d done; this time, we refused to turn
away; we saw him die, watch cities burn.