J.A., 48, a hospitality team leader in Portland, OR

A personal reflection in the form of a poem:

TOMORROW

Tomorrow we will dance
You and I
Heads thrown back, laughing
Hands clasped, strong
Bodies held up and supported
By each other
Under a blue sky of remembrance
Faces raised to the sun
Sweet warm air kissing skin
Surrounded by nothing
But the moment we are in
Until tomorrow then
When we will dance
You and I

I wrote this poem in the month of April, thinking of those I missed but could not see or touch in these first few months of the pandemic. I thought about what it would be like when we reunited, how I might express a memory of how I hope it would be. I thought specifically of my 5-year old great niece, and how we had done this very thing but only inside at Christmas for a sleep-over and I missed having her for those sleep-overs. She loves to dance and so do I. Expressing this feeling in the form of a poem helped me to feel better because it was not forever, but sometime that I would see her and the rest of my family again.

[submitted on 5/22/2020]

Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic is an initiative sponsored by the Poetic Media Lab and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford University.

Our Sponsors and Partners

Find Us!

Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA),
Stanford University

Address:
4th floor, Wallenberg Hall (bldg. 160)
450 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305
Stanford Mail Code: 2055