Covid Dreams, My Eyes Can Travel

My eyes can travel,
Where my body can not.
Out windows and doors
Where skies are blue
And the earth is in bloom.

I soak up the color
And imagine the warmth
Of the sun on my face.

I remember the smell
Of fresh-cut grass.
The color green
Smells like grass.

My eyes can travel
Where my feet can’t go.

Trapped behind walls and fences
Each in our own
Little bubble of safety.

Days, Months, Years
An uncertain future.

Do you remember normal?
A hug from a friend,
A quick trip to the grocery store,
A date in a restaurant,
Picnics, parties, book clubs?

A way of life we took for granted
Today only a memory
We can cherish.

Now we meet between screens,
Or separated by glass.
Takeout food,
Hand sanitizer,
Fist bumps,
Elbow bumps,
Not handshakes or hugs.

My eyes can travel
Out windows and doors

Across time and distance.
I see you, you see me.
We raise our eyebrows
Squinting a smile,
Hidden behind a mask.

I close my eyes to
Remember,
Time spent with loved ones now lost,
To a tiny germ that kills indiscriminately.

When it’s all over
If it’s ever all over

Will we remember
How to love?

By Cheryl McDonald 2023©

If you would like to listen to me read this poem, please click below.

I started this drawing Covid Dreams, My Eyes Can Travel in April of 2020 when I was staying in LA at the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic. It captured my feelings about being in quarantine. At this time it was just graphite.

I was staying with one of my daughters and her family. Since we had no idea what was going to happen with this disease, we decided it was safer for me to be with family then to be by myself.

I stayed for a couple of months until things were a little clearer on how to deal with this and then I came home and stayed in isolation on my own. I was careful and now fully vaccinated. I never got Covid, knock on wood, and fingers crossed, and now live mostly a normal but careful life.

When I returned home, just the thought of working on this made me feel more isolated and all I wanted to do was to create art that made me happy, I started drawing fruits and vegetables and some flower paintings as well. I learned to make sourdough bread and I worked in my garden. All of this and Zoom meetings with family and friends, sustained me through the year.

In 2021 I could see some light at the end of this tunnel and it gave me hope. I wanted to document my feelings from the last year and so I pulled this out and totally re-drew it in graphite and colored pencil. I did not write the poem till 2023.

I use surrealism to capture my emotions and the checkerboard floor often shows up when I am feeling a sense of un-reality. Kind of like being in an Alice in Wonderland experience. In this drawing the walls and the floors are interchangeable and there is no up or down. The eyes in bubbles are free to float beyond the walls to see what they can. Getting a glimpse of nature helped me keep from going off the deep end.

We have been through so much over the last 3 years, Covid had such a major impact on every aspect of our world, beyond the incredible numbers of people we have lost. It feels like things are starting to normalize and yet, this is not an experience we will ever forget. And that is why I had to paint this, because it memorializes what we have been through and that is important to me.

Have a safe and happy day,

Cheryl