Small Craft

Small craft wind advisory. Lake becomes ocean. Still becomes undone. Distraction. Etch-a-sketch. Dissolve into cement. Careful not to disturb bird sanctuary behind the boom. My resolve a mirage. Wind does its rippling as wind often does. Lake contained for the most part. Boat too small for the weight of me. Sounds of sadness drop soft.

The Shield of Achilles (aka just us)

I stare wall-eyed.

A man stoops on the sidewalk outside our corner liquor store. Spare change? “Sorry.” (my standard answer)

CNBC squawks on about moral hazard. Dodges income inequality.

Virus pricing. Wally & I walk away with two-twenty dollar bottles of liquid protection. The uneven-ness of it all not lost on (us).

Vulnerable

Marie Laveau

I am neither creole nor a juju practitioner. But I keep a laminated prayer binder-clipped to my notes.

“benevolent Marie Laveau, who draws her strength from the Loas, i trust in your protecting love & strengthening power. in your kindness, give me the fortitude to confront the misfortunes i meet & the strength to overcome my weaknesses.”

What if my misfortune is a virus floating in an air pocket, waiting to hijack me home walking the dog? What if my weakness is a strength, my immune system raging in a cytokine storm fighting to keep me alive unwittingly taking the whole of me down instead? SOS immune system distress. What if I don’t make it back?