An Artful Break

'The Masks We Wore' and more

April 9 to 15, poetry from our readers

Posted 4/8/20

An artful break: April 9 to 15, poetry from our readers

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An Artful Break

'The Masks We Wore' and more

April 9 to 15, poetry from our readers

Posted

Calling all creators:

The River Reporter would like to open its editorial space for artists to comment on current events. Submit your topical artworks, photography, poetry and prose for a chance to be viewed by our readers.
Submit no more than four titled works to copyeditor@riverreporter.com by Monday at 1 p.m., any week. Please include no more than three sentences in the third person as a brief biography.
Artworks accompanied by essays, poetry or prose are encouraged. Keep in mind that photos will be printed in black and white.

The Masks We Wore

By William Y. Fellenberg

My friend tells me that other shoppers
stared at him like he was a freak.
His mask and latex gloves disturbed them
as he leaned into cold bins
of ground chuck or pressed his thumb
into an avocado, testing its ripeness.
“Always wear protection,” once drew a smirk;
all monkey business now gone with
the toilet paper, baseball, and buzzing cafés.
Flickering lights cast doubt in the express lane.
The cashier rings up suspicion. To mask or
not to mask—choices to avert our killing.

William Fellenberg resides in Tyler Hill, PA, where he writes poems and stories under the spell of his wife, Donna, and two tuxedo cats, Bella and Carmine.

Viruses

By Mort Malkin

Very microscopic they are,
and barely a life form, but we
higher beings can’t match them for
virility. Homo sapiens
does well though, large scale, as we’ve shown
at Hiroshima.  Then, we may
compete in the contagion game
with our entry:  ICBMs.

Mort Malkin is a formally trained poet and founding member of the Milanville Poets UnLtd. He has a number of published poetry books and his work has been included in several anthologies.

poetry, coronavirus

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