haiku in a pandemic
we must stay apart
now when we need each other
most, shelves bare of touch
***
when we can hug again
you’re going to feel
a little bit warmer
I’m going to hold on
just a few seconds more
***
humans of the earth
you have the look of one
who crawled up out of the sea
took an IQ test
and invented fashion
Mary Oishi was named Albuquerque Poet Laureate on July 1, 2020. Oishi is the author of Spirit Birds They Told Me (West End Press, 2011), and co-author with her daughter, Aja Oishi, of Rock Paper Scissors (Swimming with Elephants Publications, 2018), finalist for the New Mexico Arizona Book Award. She is one of twelve U.S. poets in translation in 12 Poetas: Antologia De Nuevos Poetas Estadounidenses (La Herrata Feliz and MarEsCierto, 2017), a project of the Mexican Ministry of Culture
