Envoi is a Non-essential Business

by Julianna Walsh

 

You’re the first one I told about Dad’s test

Yes, positive for the coronavirus

Heard it myself, shrugged, and spoke no words

Mom tells me to put on a mask

All I do these days is sit in front of a screen

Just like you, but 70 miles away

 

It’s not exactly easy to get away

All this stress puts me to the test

I hear the MVC is open to screen

Those who might have the coronavirus

I have stopped attempting to mask

My hatred of Mom’s fearful words

 

Some days, I offer you few words

You know I’m wasting the hours away

Dad’s recovering. Still home, but no mask

Today, I took my sociology test

School during the coronavirus

Makes me hate seeing my laptop screen

 

I talk to you through my phone screen

Always use the same tired old words

Like articles on the coronavirus

I’m sorry my wit is fading away

Feel like I’d fail a vocabulary test

All I’d know is “social distancing” and “mask”

 

I think I need a skincare mask

My camera shows acne on my screen

But not now. I have to finish this test

Of how well I can work with six ending words

Which seems to have become “rain, rain, go away”

But about the coronavirus

 

I’m sick of hearing “coronavirus”

Spoken through a surgical mask

The end of all this is so, so far away

I only know the world through a screen

Which always spills out the same words

Putting our patience to the test

 

Julianna’s Bio:

Julianna Walsh graduated from East Brunswick High School in 2019 and intends to study social work. Her favorite poets are Danez Smith and Langston Hughes.

Julianna wrote this poem for Joanna Fuhrman’s spring 2020 Poetry course.  Fuhrman selected the piece as a WHR featured poem.