Lynne Glowacki, May 19, 2020, Reston, Virginia

“That’s my name,” she had said—
“Augustina”—when I told her my son’s name (Morgan August).
That was the day we met at church over coffee and muffins with Jane, my friend, her daughter.
She died in March.
(was it March? I can’t remember. What month is it now?)
She had moved North and you think
You think you might see someone again soon or sometime but
She’s your friend’s mother not your friend not really
Until she dies and you remember how much you really liked her.
And she seemed to like her name more now that someone else used it.

(Is it May? How can it be May?)

Michael died in April.
His wife and high school sweetheart posted to the alumni board and
Boy did that bring everyone together
(our 30th reunion would have done that in June
But there are no reunions anymore
At least not in New York)

And there’s no church and coffee and muffins
Or meeting mothers of friends

There’s only the missing:
The hum and the chatter,
The dates on the calendar,
The people we don’t miss until we realize
The last touch we had was the last.

Well things got a bit busy down on the Quarantine Homestead, so I didn’t get to put these up until today. Sorry about that! But here we are with Haiku Part 2, mostly written on April 12, 2020. Again, some of these might not follow Haiku Rules perfectly, and again, nobody cares, because we’re all quarantined. Once again, if something on this page inspires you to create art to go with it, please do! Send artworks to info@lpgcyber.com with reference to the original work, place, and date of creation.

---

Jae O’Connor, Woodbridge, Virginia

Animal Crossing
All day, all night, until now--
FF7's out!

---

Izolda Trakhtenberg, New York, New York

Sleepless quarantine.
3:30 in the morning.
Craving chili fries.

---

L. Jane Begley, Lexington, Kentucky

With April showers
Hot tears blend with warm raindrops,
Mourning for what was

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Moose Finklestein, Ypsilanti, Michigan

Stuck inside? Not hard
Once was snowed in for four months
Yinz are amateurs

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Ray Strobel, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

If not for our cats
my sanity and outlook
would surely suffer

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Anna Zabo, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Schrodinger's virus
Maybe have it, maybe not
Guess I'll wear a mask

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Patricia Stewart, Longwood, Florida

Quarantined with kids
They are eating all the snacks
We can't afford this

---

Lisa Brandes, Altamonte Springs, Florida
(Note that Lisa is my mother’s best friend)

Would be going nuts
If it wasn't for your mom
I see her every day

---

Jae O’Connor

Quarantine work makes
us feel greater-than colon
Left-Parenthesis

> : (

---

Sandy Hoffman Schwalb, Front Royal, Virginia

So much time to think
But the tv fills the room
Settle for Netflix

---

Signe George, Rockville, Maryland

One more day inside
I did nothing productive
Just binge-watching "Fringe"

---

Sara Matlin, Redwood City, California

Toothpaste smells funny
I think that means I do not
Have COVID-19

---

Ben Feldman, April 16, 2020, (place unknown)

Sitting here alone
The world is turned inside out
COVID-19 die!

---

And once again, that’s all for now! But that’s not all there is! I know there is more art and writing out there, so get it in and let’s get it online! Love from me to you! Stay safe!

–Lynne

We had about a week without any submissions, so to get the creativity moving again, I put out a call on Facebook for Quarantine Haiku. Some of these are not actually Haiku, and that is fine. This set were written on Saturday, April 11, 2020. Authors and places are included. If something on this page inspires you to create art to go with it, please do! I am considering an ongoing community art project. Send artworks to info@lpgcyber.com with reference to the original work, place, and date of creation.

---

Jacalyn Boggs, Fredericksburg, Virginia

It's a pandemic
hiding out and staying safe.
No life or same life?

---

Danny Tsang, Manassas, Virginia

Social Quarantine?
I call it Social Thriving!
Back to games I go. 

---

Melanie Manzer Kyer, York, Maine

You can't write right now?
Sometimes just existing's hard.
Cut yourself some slack.

---

Misty Kall, Paris, Tennessee

endless teardrops fall
when can I hold you again
a house not a home

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Charlotte Yano, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

I've been home for days
Over thirty now, extending
Further and further

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Karen M. Yano, Seattle, Washington

Plagues, cicadas, frogs,
rediscovering silence,
contemplating  kindness

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Carole M. Stokes, Enfield, Connecticut

Sitting inside my house
Sunshine streams in the window
When can I be free?

---

Charlotte Yano, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The world is stopped still
We are all waiting to fall ill
Maybe not, head out again.

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L. Jane Begley, Lexington, Kentucky

Solitude is hard.
Awash in springtime sunshine
Alone with my thoughts

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Elizabeth Amy Miller, Ashburn, Virginia

Coronavirus
Keeping us all indoors
Buying food while masked

---

Caitlyn Childress Bergeron, Bristow, Virginia

My crown is filled, not with thorns
In this still season,
But with silence - and with light.

---

And that’s it for Saturday’s submissions. We had some more come in on Sunday and today, and I’ll format and get those on the blog tomorrow or Wednesday depending on how my work week goes. (Also the kids are starting back to school with computer learning, so there’s no telling what my bandwidth is going to be like). Please remember to keep sending in submissions–and remember that anything that your brain sees as creative durinig this time is a go (remembering we have science and math on here! Please tell your friends, as this project will only work with contributions from lots of places. And for the haiku part of the project I would really love to have an illustration for each, so if you are moved to create art, please do so and let me know! –Lynne G.

LaDonna Murphy, Lexington, Kentucky, March 26, 2020

Goodnight dears
You survived today,
You, most likely, will survive tomorrow

I almost broke down with relief
in the store today
Because the shelves were mostly
full of products

It was that momentary return
to normalcy
that reduced my anxiety
despite the mask I wore

Remember that you didn’t live
outside of your house 24/7
before this crisis

There were things you enjoyed
before all this happened
that you can still do now
What are they?

We won’t be living back in
Normalcy for a while yet

But we can make
short visits there everyday