Love in the time of COVID (Poetry)
You came up to me with your sparkling eyes
While I was taking a picture of the blue skies
I couldn’t hear you with that mask
I kept my phone in my yellow fanny pack
You bashfully told me that it was me who you like
But honestly, you were not my type
I did not know how to turn your confession down
I jokingly told you, “Sorry”
Like a sloppy red clown
I don’t know what came to me that day
I told you that we had to be 2 metres away
You took 3 steps back
This incident came to me in a flashback
Paranoid of others sneezing
The numbers are increasing
When 12 months ago,
we didn’t have trouble breathing
I told myself I wouldn’t think of you
But now 8 months flew
And I didn’t catch up with you
I applied to a new school
I won’t be able see you
It’s Christmas, trying to find its meaning
Everyone was busy cleaning
Looking through my high school memories
A note fell from my notebook
A folded paper that wrote
And I am going to quote the following in parentheses
“Read when you feel lonely”
You knew I would reject you
If only I could withdraw what was said
In the past I did not know
Now I write this poem to you
In the hopes it would reach you too
You will always be in my memory through and through
-Fidelia Ynez Bautista
