Typewriter Rodeo: Being Kind To Yourself In COVID Times

Each week, the Standard reaches out to Austin’s Typewriter Rodeo for a custom poem on Texas topics.

By Bianca Alyssa PérezOctober 23, 2020 9:56 am,

Risk, isolation, and grief are experiences that have been amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking some time to recognize the small things, even if painful or negative, was the inspiration for this Typewriter Rodeo poem.

A Love Letter

to the TV humming low at midnight–
I can’t go to sleep in weighted silence

to French vanilla cream in black coffee–
more sweet than bitter blessing

to soft Sunday pillows & linens straight
out from the tumble, tender & slow

to the hole in every pair of socks I own —
I don’t know how to stop loving something
even after it is already gone

to my itchy elbow– I love you despite yourself

to late night red wine & Rosalia singing
Capitulo Once haunting the corner of this room

to the things I do not say, building
themselves a nest in collarbone crook

to this breath
to this last line
to this —

image of typewritten poem

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