Keep Quiet -Homage to Pablo Neruda during COVID-19 Quarantine

GRACE MEGNET

April 21, 2020

Gaia holds us cradled in her lap 

and fondles our sweaty hair.

Wealth, walls, and flags rot

like smelly shoes outside the door.

I count to twelve, she says,

you all keep still.

We are all together in sudden strangeness.

When will this end? we fuss.

Don’t move your arms so much, she says.

Fishermen don’t harm whales.

Workers look at their callous hands.

Gaia takes a breath,

and silence interrupts our sadness.

You will understand, she says.

I count to twelve.

GRACE MEGNET holds an MFA in painting. She is an Associate Professor at Lamar State College - Port Arthur and a Piper Professor of 2019. She grew up in Switzerland. Twenty years ago, she came to the United States. Signing up for a creative writing class was her last frontier, and Jerry Bradley made her an American. If she did not have to work, she would spend her life painting, making pots, and writing. She came to TACWT in 2013 when she won the non-fiction category for the first time. She lives in Beaumont, TX with her husband who keeps teaching her English.