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.
I AM A LEPER
Douglas Holder
I wear a pristine
white mask
to cover my contorted face
my hands covered
in clenched fists
of tight blue
plastic.
People swerve
from me
in the street,
wide arcs
for six feet
of shelter
from the storm.
I play Hollywood Squares on Zoom
framed portraits of friends
a museum of distress–
talking helps…
gallows humor does
the rest.
Doug Holder is the founder of the Ibbetson Street Press. His work has appeared widely in literary journals and newspapers. His most recent poetry collection is ” The Essential Doug Holder.” He teaches creative writing at Endicott College in Beverly, MA.
Check out more of Doug’s writing on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin!
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