The word ‘Silver’

The word silver reaches

beyond simple shimmering

 

past predictable fingers

of moon

 

reflected on dark

river, to a place

 

where everything

is unexpected

 

and nothing is what

I had hoped

 

for myself, or for you

or for the bright

 

color itself, or for anyone

who ever anticipated

 

anything.

Sara Willingham

 

My community in Concord found new ways to connect while staying at home: sidewalk art, graduation lawn signs, window messages of hope and gratitude. During one of my daily walks, I realized I was seeing my same old neighborhood with new eyes and suddenly, the whole world burst into bloom. That day I found five whirling pinwheels in my front yard with the message, “let happiness spin … spread joy.”

 

This poem and others are published in “COVID Spring: Granite State Pandemic Poems,” edited by Alexandria Peary