Catherine Arra

Beauty in the Time of Corona

 
She walked four–five miles a day for a year. A tally of Fitbit steps. Over 1,600 miles
of leaving him, the marriage, wrestling through memory, nettle, snags, swamp, drizzle,
frigid gusts stinging tears and more tears until she was drenched with weeping.
 
Then Corona came and she walked to ask earth and animals forgiveness—
 
Sandhill cranes in squawking mating dances.
Golden-necked anhinga winking her turquoise eye. Sun streaming through fence slats.
Wind on water palettes, sand. Purple field grasses watercolor washing the sky.
 
And that sky … all drama and God-gushing glory.
 
A reminder to look up. Beyond. Believe in cosmic clarity, a full moon.
Saturn conjunct Jupiter, how restrictions expand us. In convergences. Transformation.
Walking … walking … to discover beauty in resilience.
 
Walking to track where she’s been. Where she’s going.
 
To walk to the belly of the Catskills. To the deer that live with her.
The beauty in belonging to herself.  Home.

Catherine Arra is the author of Her Landscape, Poems Based on the Life of Mileva Marić Einstein (Finishing Line Press, 2020), (Women in Parentheses) (Kelsay Books, 2019), Writing in the Ether (Dos Madres Press, 2018), and three chapbooks. Arra is a native of the Hudson Valley in upstate New York, where she teaches part-time and facilitates local writing groups. Find her at www.catherinearra.com