Monty Reid

 

 

from

The Lockdown Elegies

 

 

 

*

The normal ghosts

return

 

at the normal time.

 

I don’t like the looks of them

any better.

 

They look like they still

don’t understand

 

what is revealed when they leave.

 

 

 

*

Dead masks

flower in the Costco parking lot.

 

The air has passed through them

so many times

 

it must now be improved.

 

As a kiss is improved

by the kissing.

 

 

 

*

The bereavement multiplier

has included you among the bereft.

 

For every loss there are 9 additional losses.

 

Until everyone is lost.

 

And everyone is found.

 

 

 

*

The curtains are always drawn

over my neighbors’ house

 

and I can’t tell if they’re sleeping

or partying again

so I suspect the worst.

 

But then I find out

they left a while ago

and there’s nothing behind the curtains

 

except the dust

and it could be dancing like crazy.

 

 

 

*

Already, I’m nostalgic for the lockdown

even tho it’s still here.

 

I’ll always love

the smell of hand sanitizer

 

and sex in mid-afternoon

just because everybody’s home

and bored with zoom.

 

Don’t worry, the camera was off.

 

Except for that one time

and you missed it.

 

 

 

*

In the particles of the present

moment.

 

In the small grit of the now place.

 

I want to see the world differently

again.

 

 

 

Monty Reid is poet living in Ottawa.  Among his most recent books are The Luskville Reductions (Brick) and Garden (Chaudiere), and chapbooks from above/ground, postghost, corrupt press, and other small publishers.  He was the Managing Editor of Arc poetry Magazine for many years and is currently the Director of VerseFest, Ottawa's international poetry festival.