October is / when night guzzles up/ the orange sherbet sunset
Every third conversation, oh yeah, they couldn’t come because they have Covid. Nonchalant, but not immune.
Schedule the no-longer-called-boosters; stay masked in the subway car and on the airplane. Ask the facilities team where all the air purifiers have gone.
Do what you can, do you what you must, do unto others as good public health practices would advise.
Avoid fatalism. Take breaks. Take walks. Read Ed Yong. Look at the stars. Call a friend.
Keep going.
Attribution
October is
when night guzzles up
the orange sherbet sunset
and sends the day
to bed
before supper
and
October is when jack-o’-lanterns
grin in the darkness
and
strange company crunches
across the rumple of dry leaves
to ring a doorbell.
— from October by Bobbi Katz