The Will to Survive

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sometimes
poetry is
waking up early to write a few lines
because you told yourself
you would
calling your Nana during pandemic
even though her voice breaking
breaks yours
homemade whipped cream over
homemade waffles on a homeschool
morning
head resting precariously on the
same shoulder after
seventeen years

sometimes poetry is
the will to survive

when this is the hardest and most
impossible thing that I have
ever endured
I remember that it is for you too
I remember that my son will someday
recollect the spring he
was taught by the world turning
viral explosion
shelter in place
and his mother’s poetry
This is both our great
undoing
and us doing our best to
do our least

sometimes stillness is
the will to survive