Restlessness

Covid fatigue set in long ago, and like typical ennui it waxes and wanes.

Restlessness

Almost an Eden until boredom

bores in. Pine-scented air and white-

tailed deer, lake and lily pads outside

                                              my door.

Covid-19 on the back burner but

so are the neighbors. Glimpsed at

and waved to through stands of trees.

A routine changed from city tennis

and Happy Hour with friends

to decoding portents of winter

from wooly bear caterpillars.

The overused kayak beckons

with all the zest expressed

by a maitre d' signaling a table

                                          for one.

The hours drag by desultory

as the droopy fly on the screen.

Novels with bookmarks stuck

at the front lie scattered on tables.

Take Away menus lack pizzazz,

    find themselves dumped back

        in the drawer, ignored.

Only the robins scavenging

the lawn seem absorbed by a task,

but that, too, won't last.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor

Illusion

Covid continues to dog the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. It is both a topic of concern or a subject to downplay, especially in the north woods.

Illusion

Some of Winslow Homer's clouds

belong to the sunrises. Opalescent

conchs of early morning.

If he were painting now

in the north woods, wisps of steam

above a lake shaded periwinkle

would beckon.

And in that mist he might place

an outline of a boat with the smudge 

of a fisherman casting,

unconcerned with whispers

of a plague swirling around him.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor