Pandemic Still Lives:

 

It takes a week for the relief of a safe inauguration to set in ....as  deaths continue to mount. Flowers from the garden make a small celebration,  purple daisies the color of Michelle Obama's outfit at the inauguration,  salvia, the hue of Kamala Harris' dress, and yellow daisies the color of Amanda Gorman's coat, collected in the  bowl from my grandmother who gave birth to my father during the Spanish flu epidemic; (I wish I could ask her about that now)...all balanced on the "Atlas of Human Anatomy", as thick as the Bible that Joe Biden used to swear his oath of office. 

Wednesday, January 6, distressed, I dropped the teapot lid, and the knob at the top of the dome  broke off. We lived with it that way from the 6th to the 8th, drinking dysfunctional, cold and bitter tea. And then we fixed it with a leather cord and an ancient bead from old Jerusalem, etched with the numerals CVI.

 

 

 

  Today, one of these lives lost belonged to my aunt, Eileen, artist and mentor, much loved.