“Quarantine Day 15” by Marianne Peel

Listen to Marianne Peel read “Quarantine Day 15.”

When my mind won’t settle in for the night
we play this game:
Tell me three good things,
I implore my lover.

I took a good shower, he tells me.
And then silence.

I didn’t have a meltdown today, I tell him.

Tomorrow I will make a Spanish stew.
We shall serve it up in miniature bowls
and call it Tapas.

There are still sticky notes
yellow and pink
scattered around the apartment.
His outreach gesture
to help me learn Spanish.
Most have lost their adhesive
and have fallen to the floor.
The label on my toothbrush
has dissolved into the bottom of the glass.
The letters are water-logged.

I am incapable of memorizing anything now.

The words on these Spanish love notes
blurred now
and utterly indecipherable.

After having taught middle and high school English for 32 years, Marianne is now nurturing her own creative spirit.  She has spent three summers in Guizhou Province, teaching best practices to teachers in China. She received Fulbright-Hays Awards to Nepal (2003) and Turkey (2009). Marianne participated in Marge Piercy’s Juried Intensive Poetry Workshop (2016).  Marianne’s poetry appears in Muddy River Poetry Review, Belle Reve Literary Journal, Jelly Bucket Journal, among others.  She has a collection of poetry forthcoming in 2020 from Shadelandhouse Modern Press.