“Standoffs” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Standoffs”

by Suzán Jiván
Mom & Mom-
Mom Suzán

Standoffs
lockdowns
lift off
lock up
take off
ticked off
put down
crack down
cut down
down and out
last gasp
on air...

“Smashed Windows/Tense Clashes” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom-Suzán

“Smashed Windows/Tense Clashes”

by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

Smashed windows/tense clashes/tear gas
asking, “What’s happening?!”
being bookended by tragedy: [race riots/virus]

“Empty Threats” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Empty Threats”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

Empty threats
leaping over fences
breaching precincts
taking a knee
smoke billowing
counterfeit currency
amber lights blinking
peace keeping
for limp bodies’
inequalities
issuing
cryptic
apologies
sending
incendiary
tweets
stoking
rioting
Covid19
caseloads
accelerating
Twitter labels’
rude awakening
imitation money
in slang ...

“Hashed-Out Hashtags” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Hashed-Out Hashtags”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

Hashed-out hashtags
crackdowns
microscopic attacks
muted narratives
hundreds of thousands
struck down
epidemic powerlessness
pinpointing infectious
thuggishness
threatening punishment
of the vulnerable
maliciously cutting
off chunks
of vital funding
never having cared much ...

“Castaways” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Castaways”

by Suzán Jivan
Mom & Mom-
Mom Suzán

Castaways
outcasts
cast off
outlawed
outliers
outa here
outa your mind
quieted
by a novel virus
medical masks
in short supply
stifled
public outcries
emotional eating
boredom anxiety
disrupted routines
anger fear
hoarding cookies
cakes and candy ...

“Sorry-Not-Sorry” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Sorry-Not-Sorry”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

Sorry-not-sorry
left in the dark
conjuring up sorrows
of pandemic carnage
leaving legacies
of tending to sick flocks
placing pots
of food on rocks
in front yards
living on
in our broken hearts
long time gone ...

“So-So-So-and-Sos” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“So-So-So-and-Sos”

Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

So-so-so-and-sos
well-well-well
being told to expect
the unexpected
by well-wishers’
hoping for the best
in a global pandemic
ending in divisiveness
rather than togetherness
“Do tell!” a little off mentally
making no sense
playing X’s and O’s
yelling out, “Bingo!” ...

“Perils on Display: Preying on Memorial Day” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Perils on Display:
Preying on Memorial Day”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

Perils on display:
preying
on Memorial Day
framed
on the front page
tempting fate
gaming
out doomsday:
“I ain’t playin’
in a cliffhanger
masquerade!”
charading
in orange makeup
disclaiming
Covid dangers
disavowing
“test-and-trace”
getting away
with falsely claiming
curative medications ...

“Cascading Weaknesses” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Cascading Weaknesses”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

Cascading weaknesses
racing to test candidates
as disaster relief freys
proclaiming, “Just
one I.C.U. bed remains!”
unsustainable public safety
dictating 15’of spacing
between blankets
on sandy beaches
foreseeing slamming waves
of viral outbreaks
leaders falsely proclaiming
the facilitation of greatness
upon observation
of rows and rows of hastily
dug graves circling birds of prey ...

“May Vanish Forever” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“May Vanish Forever”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

May vanish forever
gone for good
permanently lost
fully exhausted
feelings of longing
grimmer then once thought
over the long haul
daunting lags in reporting
corporeal abnormalcy
far worse off ...

“Sipping and Strolling on Tiptoes” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Sipping and Strolling on on Tiptoes”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

Sipping and strolling on tiptoes
seeking Corona life coaches
having experienced
extreme Zoom fatigue
considering Melatonin
for sleep feeling like alchemy
when all you really need
is heavy cream
shaken vigorously
stored in the freezer
topped with fresh berries ...

“Buried in Our Ancient DNA” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Buried in Our Ancient DNA”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

Buried in our ancient DNA
coursing through our veins
mutating over generations
becoming long and skinny
intermittently switching
willy nilly sinisterly
linking to horrific illnesses
depending on infectious detritus
triggering full-fledged enemy cells
well into a lethal present tense ...

“Eerie Normality” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán ...

“Eerie Normality”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

Eerie normality
beneath withering
quarantines
simmering release
slanting windshields
speeding vehicles
accelerating
down empty streets
the privileged
having exited cities
back filled
by high-risk individuals
sinister invisibility
victim anonymity...

“Left Scrambling” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Left Scrambling”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

Left scrambling
in lesser-grade face masks
from fabric, scraps, bandannas
and sanitary napkins
unearned by “macho man”
claiming “bad air”
while “putting on airs”
regarding poor health care
denying feeling, “scared”
being battered by grief and sadness
declaring, “This is a scam!” ...

“Upticks” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Upticks”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

Upticks stoking division
from “respect” to “sick
and twisted” grim viral statistics
binary code snippets
posted just for kicks
shaking canned cocktails
as a one-step process
getting drunk at the park
practicing tipsy social distancing
risking sipping upwind ...

“The Go-Slow-Letting-Go Approach” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“The Go-Slow-Letting-Go Approach”

by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

The go-slow-letting-go approach
UFOs hovering dangerously close
emitting plumes of smoke
as aerial drones close in
on nonnegotiable black holes
creating zombie-like poses
friend-or-foe viral body control
having gone almost totally unnoticed...

“Wearing Simple Accessories” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Wearing Simple Accessories”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

Wearing simple accessories
in an attempt to lessen
the chances of spread
as common sense protection
both in private and public settings
yet pandemic presidents
recklessly exempt themselves
dismissing “excess deaths”
demeaning “eggheads”
declaring, “Ice Cream
Trucks Are Essential!”
soft serve or hard sprinkles on top ...

“Freaking Out” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Freaking Out”

by Suzán Jiván
Mom & Mom-
Mom Suzán

Freaking out in an outbreak
breaking down
profound challenges
after staking out
massive demagogic rallies
relinquishing
not-too-distant-social distancing
while living in a make-believe
world of malarkey ...

“Closed Links Stark Warnings” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Closed Links Stark Warnings”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

Closed links stark warnings
risking reopening
using misleading numbers
as fake praise
downplaying the danger
of hopscotching
over vulnerable populations
in grave anticipation
of a dreaded second wave
culminating
as a series of ungainly wavelets
overtaking blatantly false claims ...

“The Potholed Roads to Reopening” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“The Potholed Roads to Reopening”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

The potholed roads
to reopening via viral loads
whistle blowers protesting
promotions of solely
political cronies as coronas
encircle the globe
facts getting glossed over
hopes going up in pyre smoke
wailing, “That’s no joke!
stoking acknowledgements
of contaminated meat
processing plants as “poppycock”
pitting pork chops against people
as meat packers don bandannas
in colorful patterns even black-
strapped sleep masks ...

“Make-or-Break Pivotal Change”

“Make-or-Break Pivotal Change”

by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

Make-or-break pivotal change
life-threatening information
taking you breath away
losing strength climbing mortality rates
phantom faces claiming to be sane
as high-risk populations seek safely
playing a distancing game of “keep away”
sheltering in place doctors-turned-candidates
staging science-based campaigns
negating false expectations...

“American Carnage” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“American Carnage”

by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

American carnage dropping social distancing
giving up on the living predatory presidents
viciously twisting with nil responsibility
deflecting rejecting and minimizing citizens
being listed as “critical” by the millions ...

“ Seeding Waves “ by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Seeding Waves”

by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

Seeding waves of viral outbreaks
across states prior to confirmed cases
of the contagion acting on hazy
hidden information regarding containment
picking up mutations along the way
while fighting “fat discrimination”
yet longing to lose weight
being told to, “Stay at home!”
alone with a loaded refrigerator
in avoidance of Covid invaders
hoping to, “flatten the curve”all in vain
exacerbating fat shaming sheltering in place ...

“An Unrelenting Crush” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“An Unrelenting Crush”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

An unrelenting crush
deaths nearly doubling
becoming overrun
by spiking body numbers

tangling the hunt
for masks and gloves
in private sector hustles
of malfunction

armed with little-or-no instruction
supplemented by long guns
handguns plus shot guns

sickened by worry
temps bubbling up
hands chapped from
washing them so much
compulsively mulling
over jigsaw puzzles ...

“Near Impossibilities” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Near Impossibilities”

by Suzán Jiván Mom
& Mom-Mom Suzán

Near impossibilities
deliberately
intermixing
hopes with worries
while writing,
“Dear Diary”
feeling sports deprived
streaking meteors
light up the night skies
night owls early risers
“Could the power
of the sun
slow down
the virus via
ultraviolet light
in spite of high
blood pressure
and diabetes
riddle-de-dee?” ...

“Revising Potential Deaths” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Revising Potential Deaths”

by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

Revising potential deaths
charting more lethality than expected
stocks plummeting with “recovery jitters”
citizens getting “lost in the weeds”
of social distancing fearing ending up “six-feet deep”
after filing for bankruptcy and failing
to wear a mask or vigorously wash their hands
due to personal vanity and suffering
from extreme “stay-at-home” fatigue
blatantly staging parades of false claims
in order to shift the blame
presidents proclaiming, “Just spit and wait!” ...

“Trying to Figure Out” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán ...

“Trying to Figure Out”

by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

Trying to figure out when it’s safe to go out
after loosening lockdowns flags flying upside down
leaders dallying hens’ eggs smashed
dancers having extra time on their hands
doctors deciding to pipe in music into emergency rooms
prescribing brief moments of beauty
in the face of chaotic despair within the units
of intensive care for harried staff
as well as intimated patients breathing with the aid
of ventilators surreally serenaded
culminating with the invocation of arcangels ...

“Posing Challenges” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Posing Challenges”

by Suzán Jiván
Mom & Mom-
Mom Suzán

Posing challenges
like “Covid Toe”
when crocodiles
once dived like dolphins
without blowholes

as excessively theatrical
poker-faced examples
of obsessive fans of the past
declaring, “Oh my stars!”

while wrestling
with the present impossible
regarding “start-up sparks”
while zipping across
Antarctica at full throttle ...

“Final Responders” by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

“Final Responders”

by Suzán Jiván Mom & Mom-Mom Suzán

Final responders swamped with bodies
starkly remarking,  “It never stops”
as mourners sob in their cars
feeling caught off guard
having mulled over the possibility
of freezing their loved-ones’ bodies
as, “a long-term storage option”
while survivors wait in mile-long food lines
dialing and redialing the suicide hotline ...