The COVID-19 pandemic has limited travel for many. Some have found more time spent at home has encouraged them to look closer at their surroundings. That was the inspiration for this Typewriter Rodeo poem.
These Are The People In Your Neighborhood
there’s an older couple living
about halfway down the block
yard spiked with scrub agave
in a bed of gravel rock
i never used to see them
i was always on the go
work in the day, friends at night
a constant to a fro
but now like us all, i’m grounded
my boring little street
about the only place i see
so despite the anvil heat
i find me strolling up and down
the block and back again
and the aging xeriscape gardeners
ask me how i’ve been
i talk about my mom and dad
they talk about their kids
everybody’s scared and lonely
everybody’s getting rid
of everything they do not need
they can’t afford it now
and yet what we are left with
is more precious somehow
like a moment with a neighbor
a simply howdy do
in the end, that’s all we have:
each other
me
and you
