Katherine McMillan said she's never experienced anything like the COVID-19 pandemic. She wrote the following poem “to get out some of the feelings that were turning around inside me.”
"Wondering"
Wondering if the grocery store worker sneezing in aisle 3 was infected
Wondering why the kid stocking the shelves isn’t wearing a mask or gloves and keeps getting in my space
Wondering if I should eat breakfast as soon as I get home from senior early-bird shopping hour
Or wipe down all the groceries with disinfectant first
Wondering if washing the thin wool gloves I wore to the store and my face muff with other clothes
Will infect everything because it was only a cold wash
Wondering if the article someone sent me today saying that vigorous exercise creates a vortex of exhaled droplets that travel as far as 35 feet is real or fake news
Wondering why the store manager says he can’t make his workers wear masks, only encourage it
Wondering why I can find any place to get a test to see if the cold I had six weeks ago was actually a mild case and now I’m okay
Wondering why our president isn’t giving us plans that reassure us rather than make us even more nervous
Wondering what the summer will look like
Wondering, if I just go back to bed, will I wake up to find it was all a bad dream?