Backyard May 2020

If you looked at our backyard

you could think that all was well with the world.

There are no daily updates nor critical voices

no graphs that trend in the wrong direction

or any direction

unless you measured the noise level amongst my kids

that increases exponentially

as I bring out the sprinkler.

We have sandwiches and iced tea for lunch

the ingredients for which were bought

by a masked version of me

in a place the kids would barely recognize.

No, they can't have a lemonade stand

or invite their friends over

but if you looked at our backyard

you could think that all was well with the world.

(first published in Plague Invasion: Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19)