Pandemic Poem #25

by Barbara Buloff

Repetitive images
Cycle my brain
Daring sleep to provide slight comfort
Unimaginable
I see Human small dangling people
Hanging on to big silver planes
Is it an art installation
Making existential meaning ?
A mockup with wire tying small renditions of humanity to some escape
I shake my head in astonishment
No
This is real
People running for their lives
They breathe
They cry out
They bite back terror
They flee from those
Who know not what they do
If they hold on tight enough
Not letting go
Perhaps
Freedom will come
There will be escape from extermination by brutal men with monstrous guns
Other humans who will smack them to their knees
Then shoot the backs of their heads
Exploding brains spewing like a piñata
Far better to fall from the sky to oblivion
Heroically chasing freedom
Dangling from a plane
Imagination making miracles
A silver bird of mercy and compassion
Carrying mortal souls to safe havens
Known only once before
Before the exit from the womb into a world of the unimaginable …

Barbara Buloff, LCSW, SEP, is an emeritus member of WTCI's Board of Directors and a faculty member of WTCI’s postgraduate training program. She has been in private practice in NYC since 1978. She utilizes an interpersonal relations approach in her work with individuals, couples and families. She will forever be inspired by the ethos of WTCI.