I’m lying here
Suspended in time
My nose is burning
My chest is tight
I’m afraid
But not really
Life will pick up again
With its endless
Merry go round
Of tasks
And worries
I scroll through pictures
I can see that my sister’s littlest kid has
the strong
Arms of our other sister
Those tough, sinewy
arms she had in 1986
When we were all
Crammed into
That apartment in the city
Filled to the brim
With diapers and toys
And our parents were whirling around us
Going to work and the store
Our mother
On the floor
Playing
Laughing
My father
Still Alive
Across town
Doing his thing
The bus
Taking my stepfather’s orchestra
Uptown to play a concert in the park
Or on the airplane
To the grand theaters of Europe
Old threadbare
Shirts
Stuffed into a metal
Bass case
That could withstand
A trip across the Atlantic Ocean
There was that time he took us with him
And I would touch Turkish soil
Before you even
Served in Attaturk’s army
A curly haired boy
About to be taken for the ride of a lifetime
And tossed out onto
The Maine snow
For me to snap up
A lifetime later
And here you are
Picking up my paxlovid
At the Hannaford Supermarket
On Forest Avenue
Bald now
With a smile
That can bring any
Virus to its
Knees
Apples Blue 