The Poeming Pigeon: From Pandemic to Protest
The Pandemic. It hit. Bowled us over. Steamrollered. Crushed.
Social injustices—ever present and often ignored—also hit. Bowled. Steamrollered. Crushed.
As 2020 churned forward, I found myself unable to do much writing. By the end of the year, I had written only two poems...one about the pandemic (“Blue Jean Blues,” dedicated to ZZ Top and published in *Raw Data: Living in the Fallout From the Coronavirus) and the other a poem of protest.
That second poem—“Manish Boy” (dedicated to Muddy Waters and to George Floyd)—has now been published in the 11th issue of The Poeming Pigeon.
It is an honor to be included with other poets in this issue. As described in the book: “When the world came to a stop, poets picked up their pens. From a global pandemic to the Black Lives Matter protests; from a highly contested election to murder hornets; and from devastating wildfires to deadly disasters, these poems not only share the truth of what we endured, they reveal the heartbreak, frustration, and anger, tempered by our resiliency and hope for a better tomorrow.”
The poems in this issue—beautiful, pointed, raw, honest, hopeful—leave me breathless and resolved to continue standing up for what I believe is right. Check out this remarkable book at
