On the Move

RICHARD DIXON

April 14, 2020

                                                                                 -end of March, 2020

Moved into a new house a month ago

just before the ominous drumbeat began

and this fatal virus, another few weeks

before red-haired bumblers felt forced

into anything resembling action

and now find myself in self-quarantine

nearly everything ends up closed, this stark

hyper-relief contrast between any attempts

to settle in, get inured to the rhythm

and ebb/flow of this house

(and blues of it all, dammit), the subtle

groans a dwelling makes while it settles

not in terms of time but function

This house, in early evening hours, calms

in intended effect, its own cadence

I think of paired rhythms, matched heartbeats

too close to myself

This evening I step outside to back patio

and face west; faint afterglow in the tinted silver

of a skinny crescent moon in the growing dark

as a nice breeze picks up and attempts 

to fill me, too, with something positive

and satisfied, ready to move on

to the next good and hopeful thing

RICHARD DIXON is a poet and essayist living in Oklahoma City. He is a retired high school Special Education teacher and tennis coach. His work has appeared in Red Earth Review, Red River Review, Dragon Poet Review and many others, including the Woody Guthrie anthologies and the new Oklahoma poets anthology. He has been a featured reader at Full Circle Bookstore, Norman Depot, Shawnee and the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival.