Corvid 19

By: Nat Foreman

The Poem

In the zoom meeting I’d realized
after three months away I didn’t really understand
what anyone was talking about
I felt out of my depth
Even tho’ it was raining I went for a walk outside
I put on my winter coat and took the big umbrella
not the little disposable one that is almost useless
Although lockdown has eased the darkening streets were pretty empty
It had been sunny enough earlier to get your daily exercise then
I felt like there should be a blues song playing in the background
with a descending double bass line
There’s a difference between being solitary and being lonely
As I turned into the terrace of fancy houses
that I always wonder which one I’d like to live in
probably one of the ones with an elaborate doorway
that was slowly turning into a parallelogram
because they are on a hill and there’s subsidence
I saw a blackbird in the little alleyway and remembered a typo
from the early days of pandemic reporting
when the TV headline might refer to Corvid-19
And then remembered the collective noun for crows
The blackbird is not a corvid
This one was soaking wet even tho’ the rain seem to run right off its feathers and bright yellow beak
It seemed completely unfazed by the rain
With an urgent what you are looking at expression
It pecked at the pavement for food and found something
And taught my mood a lesson.