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was pretty dark, just differently dark than now

Last year was the assault on public health, precursor to different kinds of assaults today. It has been a devastating ride on many levels.

Last year, after I brought the plants in, I had a cricket for company. Crickets are social creatures, so I felt bad for my singing friend. But at the same time, having the sound of summer endure into the worst professional winter of my life was a balm. You can read my homage to him in Pen in Hand, publication of the Maryland Writer’s Association.

The other poem, “past Richmond,” is from summer. I had a conference in North Carolina, so drove past Richmond there and back. I went to undergrad nearby, am quite familiar with the legacy of tobacco in Richmond specifically and Virginia generally, and I support public health measures that limit use of tobacco products writ large.

This poem is about more than that–it’s about the larger narrative of nostalgia for ‘bygone’ days of fewer regulations–and less support for people who look (and love) like me.

Including people we have lost to the darkness, people who were Good.