The Virus
2021
‘ We Are Really in This Now’ e m i ly f e r r a r a
“Governor ordered statewide lockdown until April 7. Nonessential biz’s to close physical operations. We are really in this now.” —email from a friend, 3/23/2020
At Swamp Locks Dam on the downstream side the Great Blue Heron shelters in the sluiceway fishing calmly in the churning. In a concrete crevice, a dark-eyed junco weaves her moss & rootlet nest spurred by the deafening rush. I cross the bridge to the basin side where stagnancy belies the urgency. A woman hauls a grocery cart down Dutton, past The Sun & the barren American Textile History Museum. The famished rush for take-out downtown: Fuji, Athenian, Brew’d Awakening, Life Alive, Warp & Weft, Wings Over Lowell. Snow begins to fly, ample flakes dust the pall, & the heron, sated, settles in, as still unmoored, I reconcile with nightfall.
The Lowell Review
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