By all indications
I spent time today studying
front lines, linked to one another
Zoom meeting, my screen a window
of windows inside a dollhouse.
I like to think that I have good ears
and what i hear from ohioans
is that – grateful.
Grateful for a governor who believes
in masks and distancing, feeding
displaced schoolchildren and poetry.
Grateful for an unusual autumn sun
and the gentle breezes dominate
until november the leaves hang
in their colors like a Matisse painting
or a toddler with a Crayolas fist.
The election is over. Time goes by
then move again and the forehead wrinkles
are bar charts, flesh and bones
courage diagrams.
– Kari Gunter-Seymour, Poet Laureate from Ohio