Free to Fly
Thomas Quitzau
December 24, 2021
Why must we choose sides?
Must we pick a face of the COVID-19 Rubik’s cube?
Rushing to judgment’s edge?
Flying from all directions
Blue Jays float to the platform
For peanuts in the shell
Multiple sorties
There must be 19, 20, 21
Swooping blue arcs
They don’t all look alike
They wear no clothes
They’re socially distanced, sort of
They wait their turns
They step aside for one daring woodpecker with the red mask and sharp beak
They own the air
They are Jetsons in the high ivy
Never nudging
Never misjudging
Clutching only peanuts.
Scheduled to arrive tomorrow, my son has tested positive:
He won’t be coming
Thomas Quitzau is a poet and teacher who grew up in the Gulf Coast region and who worked for over 30 years in Houston, Texas. A survivor of Hurricane Harvey, he recently wrote a book entitled Reality Showers, and currently teaches and lives on Long Island, New York with his wife and children.
