When COVID-19 began to wreak havoc across the world, poet Alice Quinn had an idea.
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Below, you could read two poems excerpted fromTogether in a Sudden Strangeness.
Credit: Knopf Doubleday
But Im the father,
I explain, like it means something
defensible.
She looks at me as if
Ive just confessed to being a minotaur
in human disguise.
It was where she studied,
Talked to home, and where shed
Loved a couple of boys.
No, it was just one
Shed actually loved.
She might never see him again.
No, that was too dramatic of her.
She considered the fridge
And threw out her favorite pesto,
The portions of salmon shed
Frozen.
Would she become a practical
Person?
who, a hundred years ago,
Was measuring the distance to the stars .
She knew there were other griefs.
This one was theirs.
She shut the lights and locked
The door.
She had the video
On her phone and would
Show it to her parents.
