SORT OF HAIKUS, always 17 syllables, or
HOW I SPEND MY VIRAL CONTAGION
1. The lobby statue / sits with ears up, moving eyes, / and masked m-utterings.
2. It’s a statue. It’s / a bot. No; it’s a chair-full / of performance art.
3. Flowers flourish. Some / tending, no trimming. Mother / Nature dresses up.
4. Bistro coffee is / gone. Charlie’s bittery blend / makes me twittery.
5. Today we can go / outside again, but it is / raining and cold. Sigh.
6. Masks take away lip / reading, a big loss for those / who need it to hear.
7. YOU TUBE’s vinyard sheep / by day; BBC radio / all night Soothers.
8. No mask. VIOLATION! / Too close. VIOLATION! / Too far. VIO…punch!
9. Hall walkers think we baa, / like sheep, or “drop [gaseous, / disastrous] roses”. 10. My apartment door / always stays open, so I /can always get out.
The Good Life: Kindle-d book, filled mug, outdoors near, CHARLIE here, old friends’ ties.
11. Pier beckons. Wheel / chair totes new flag lawn-chair, so / Charlie can sit, too.
12. Charlie says I’m a / very difficult person. / Goodness knows, I try.
13. Nothing will ever / be the same again, but then / it never was. Sigh.
14. No groups, no outsiders, / delivered meals. / Wear masks, scrub hands often.
15. Deaf-ish, masked colleagues / eat breakfast and talk six feet / apart. It’s loud. “WHAT?”
16. With long life, some wisdom, / and 20/20 vision, / we shout, GO, JOE!
17. People meets are few. / Roof seagull “soaps” are many. I watch. I’m so hooked.
18. Charlie and I read / newspapers differently. / He is good company.
19. My wheelchair could / tote golf-bag and drinks on course / paths. Ready, Charlie?
20. Honeycrisp, I’m over you. / It’s Envy now, / until Cosmic Crisp comes. 21. VOTE HIM OUT! VOTE HIM / OUT! VOTE HIM OUT! VOTE HIM OUT! / VOTE HIM OUT! VOTE! VOTE!
I’ve doodled all my days. Does that make it a way of life? Or worse, a way of thinking? Can you imagine an epitaph worse than, “She thought in 17-syllable ideas?” Probably more, later.