By Jivani Rodriguez, Kristina Watt, Mary Woodbury, Stephanie Stott.

Reader-submitted stories of the COVID-19 pandemic, in no more than 100 words. Read past stories here. Submit your own here.

GHOST TOWN WAKING

My parents tell me they smuggled me in.

Like it’s a joke.

Like thousands haven’t died.

But there’s no border patrol waiting for us. No inspection team. No need to hide in the trunk.

Fleeing from ghost town to ghost town.

It wasn’t until my walk last night after the storm, listening to Mitski – deep bass and foggy sorrow-voice – that I remembered the point of being alive. Heard frogs sing from the creek. Watched a girl dance under a streetlamp, not a care in the world. Saw a shooting star.

So shocked I forgot to make a wish.

— Jivani Rodriguez (Fairfield, Iowa)

(Top Photo: Ghost town.)

* * *

THE LEEK OF THE APOCALYPSE

Same store as before. 
The gloves don’t use cash best not smile
Plastic shield.
Where, now what – 
Her fridge is so full (a first – who’s it for?)
Walks on with false purpose. The Frozens. New Land.
Butternut squash Paper Bag
Cubed!
Waits. Hears the “do it.”
Grabs the bag on the bottom
Now GO.
But can’t seem to leave yet.
…
“Come closer” it calls.
…
(Really?)
(Haven’t tried you for a while.)
(Gassy, that’s true.)
I’ll do it.
It eases inside (a smile of sorts?)
Pays through plastic with plastic and she and her leek walk it home.

— Kristina Watt (Ottawa, Ontario)

* * *

PARTIES AMID PANDEMONIUM

My cap and gown sit in vacuum-sealed plastic bags, purchased two weeks before quarantine. Funny, the day I muster the courage to break my shut-in streak, we’re told to stay indoors. Playing Sims 4 until 2 AM and listlessly thumbing through library books isn’t new to me. The only difference is that my anxiety has infected this house. The street. The city. Tourists are immune to it, popping bottles and drowning in their youth on Clearwater Beach, while crematoriums across the pond fire up. If my grandmother were alive, I’d pray for her.

— Stephanie Stott (Largo, Florida)

* * *

THE WIND

Nova Scotia winds wildly shake the new house where I’m self-isolating. I wonder when or if my husband can get here from 4,000 kilometers away. Six days seeing no one. Alone here in the unfamiliar. The wind, the dead roses, the blue jays, the crows, the seagulls, and the old gardens in the vast yard call me out. Old stone birdbath statues watch me as I walk by. It is not the old world. The landscape is new, the fears and tears eclipsed by good deeds. We can do this if we live, I think.

— Mary Woodbury (Beaver Bank, Nova Scotia)

______________________________

This series is edited by Thomas Peterson. One of the editors of Artists & Climate Change, he is also a theatre director and researcher whose work focuses on the climate crisis.

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Artists and Climate Change is a blog that tracks artistic responses from all disciplines to the problem of climate change. It is both a study about what is being done, and a resource for anyone interested in the subject. Art has the power to reframe the conversation about our environmental crisis so it is inclusive, constructive, and conducive to action. Art can, and should, shape our values and behavior so we are better equipped to face the formidable challenge in front of us.

Go to the Artists and Climate Change Blog

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