Pandemic Reality Show

For Sima

by Anita S. Pulier


Another quarantined morning
weather irrelevant —
she walks into her closet,
inhales stale scents and
with the power of a fairytale kiss
wakes a dormant dress,
gingerly removes it from a dusty hanger,
decides to revive one neglected outfit
every quarantined day, smooths
the silk dress, lays it out on her bed,
showers, combs her greying hair,
puts on makeup, earrings, wraps
her mother’s ancient pearl necklace
around her neck, grabs her phone,
snaps a selfie, smiles, at an aging woman
wearing her favorite blue silk
deftly redefining a shapeless day.
Allowing the silk to caress her,
she stares out the bedroom window
at the cloudless blue sky, hits send.


* * * * *

"Pandemic Reality Show" is from Anita S. Pulier's new poetry collection Toast (Finishing Line Press, 2021).

Anita S. Pulier’s three chapbooks Perfect Diet, The Lovely Mundane and Sounds of Morning and her book The Butchers Diamond  were published by Finishing Line Press. Her second full length book Toast has just been released. Anita’s poems have appeared both online and in print in many journals and her work is included in six anthologies. Anita has been the featured poet nine times on The Writers Almanac.
Her website is: http://psymeet.com/anitaspulier/