Portrait of the Virus as Clarity

It was the season of waiting—the moon
grew grayer, the sun dimmer

as if on a timer. Now, it said.
The world was no longer green,
nor golden. Only

a silence we could see,
but we stayed away. It was the figment who told us
God was sick—
She came to us in echoes, in sways

of naked branches—it was the first time
we did not question.

We held our ears
to the dirt, listened for Her lessons.

This was the moment we learned
about the creation of a shadow.

Kakie Pate is an MFA candidate in poetry at Emerson College and works as the head poetry editor for the literary journal Redivider. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in DIALOGIST Journal, Yes Poetry, and Entropy, among others. Although a native Virginian, she currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts.