Serena Agusto-Cox
Remote Work
Home office view of the quiet yard.
The birds bang their heads into glass,
a moment of blindness. Mating songs,
angry tweets, territorial posturing on feeders.
Perhaps, my office is not soundless.
Elementary school streaming, dogs
barking over microphones, teachers calling
out names, looking for answers
from the disengaged. Whispered answers,
requests to repeat the question.
Draft client text, peppered with child-like
giggles, rather than COVID-19’s spread.
Remote work done by drones among distraction
would be less human.
In the distance
my (l)only child marched
into an age of social distance
six inches between her
and her friends, a digital letter across oceans
Squeezy hugs, tag, games
turn to closed door sessions
doll drama on YouTube,
scavenger hunts viewed.
(a)lone child shouts
at her parents, cries
in an empty room full
of toys, books, and ghosts of sleepovers
March us back to birthdays
when friends shouted, told secrets
behind doors, giggled, and ran
hand-in-hand through screened doors.
Serena Agusto-Cox’s creative work appears in Dissonance Magazine, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, The Hill Rag, The Broadkill Review, Modern Creative Life, Baseball Bard, Bourgeon, and others. Two poems appear in The Plague Papers, three poems in Love_Is_Love: An Anthology for LGBTQIA+ Teens, and an essay in H.L. Hix’s Made Priceless. She also founded the book review blog, “Savvy Verse & Wit,” and Poetic Book Tours to help poets market their books.