Ann Fisher-Wirth’s poem “Corona Journal, Day 32,” was chosen by Terrain.com for their Letters to America Collection on the 2020 Election Day.

Corona Journal, Day 32

A young stag at dusk,

white tail flicking, eating flowers
heaped on a raw grave,

raises his head to watch us
before he vanishes slowly into the trees.

                  ~

Outside the kitchen window,

my Peace roses ride on arching stems
like moons in a lead-white sky.

—My? All year, earth holds them,
I ignore them.

                  ~

Night thickens among the branches

of gingko, maple, willow oak, cherry,
redbud, and the thicket of bamboo

that surround this wooden house.
Sometimes I am afraid.

                  ~

At three I knelt on the back seat

of my mother’s car and, looking out the window,
said, there’s so much to see

and so little time to see it. Or so I’ve been told.
It’s like that now, watching the leaves.

                  ~

Bread rises in the oven.

May the stag sink back into the forest.
May the petals drop on the grass.

Whoever you are, may you be at peace
in this great silence, where only the birds speak.