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March 1, 2021

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en temps de peste

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Notes Toward a Theory of Worth

  • May 31, 2020
  • 1:13 pm
  • Appalachia
In detention centers only guards wear masks, wash their hands/ In prisons only guards wear masks, wash their hands
Susan art option - notes value

Susan Sailer

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Notes Toward a Theory of Worth

 

Next week gyms re-open as do large restaurants. Can I be safe
Will we all wear masks of double or triple layers of cotton

I bought a week’s worth of groceries. Then I washed my hands
Campgrounds opened to in-state campers who are asked to social distance

Will we all wear masks of double or triple layers of cotton
In detention centers only guards wear masks, wash their hands

Those detained have neither soap nor water nor masks nor social distance
Someone there is coughing, feels feverish, struggles to catch his breath

In detention centers only guards wear masks, wash their hands
In prisons only guards wear masks, wash their hands

Someone there is coughing, feels feverish, struggles to catch her breath
Sleepless at night, I think of those detained by illness or the color of their skin

In prisons only guards wear masks, wash their hands
Next week gyms re-open as do large restaurants. Can I be safe

Sleepless at night, I think of those detained by illness or the color of their skin
I bought a week’s worth of groceries. Then I washed my hands

 


 

Well-Being Study, Covid-19, Phase One

 

How is your void shaped today?
Compared with yesterday?
Are you aware of uneven weathering?
Where do you most notice this?
Have a few fragments tumbled out of you recently?
What terrors factor in their loss?
What has disappeared you’re most aware of?
When do you most notice what is missing?
Do you feel crushed?
How heavy do you imagine a mastodon’s foot to be?
How many mistakes have you made today?
Is the ratio higher than yesterday at this time?
Have you recently taken shadows for substance?
Do you have favorite shadows?
Do you fantasize about disappearing into them?
On a scale of 1 to 10, rate your overall state of well-being,
1 highest; 10, lowest.

 

Susan Sailer
Susan Shaw Sailer's third book of poems, THE DISTANCE BEYOND SIGHT, will be published by Main Street Rag Publishing in August. Sailer taught at West Virginia University and, before that, in Tacoma Washington public schools. She asks that you donate to your local food bank.

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One Response

  1. Judith stitzel says:
    05/31/2020 at 7:40 PM

    Very powerful to hear you read the poems.
    Particularly and gratefully thrown into thought and feeling by “Notes.”

    Thank you.

    Reply

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