Still Here

by Kelly Vance


in the sterile 6-foot radius, the saving distance, the songs
I catch myself singing to the dog and sometimes to myself,

the COVID spring, silent streets, emerging germinations,
the sneezes of suspicion and a million memes of doubt.

in an empty grocery aisle echoing anger against a wall of fear,
hiding stockpiles of toilet paper and hand sanitizer

in an apocalyptic media of murder hornets,
stinging and stingy and singing 

hallelujahs of we-told-you-so and this-is-the-end,
heralds of closed signs, furloughs, everybody stays-at-home.

in riots of wings beating against their own far right, far left,
and statues commemorating horror pulled to the ground, burning.

And…

in a honeysuckle swoon that will not
surrender, nascent flies clinging

to sun-warmed screens and steaming piles, the verdant
sweat-sweetened musk of upturned earth,

the morning walk of daily sunrise, of seasons
stubbornly returning, of rain and thunder,

in everyday squirrels hiding and finding
their walnuts again.


* * * * *

Kelly Vance earned her MFA from Eastern Kentucky University, where she received the Emerging Writers Award for poetry in 2021. In selecting Vance for this award, Jen Currin wrote, “Vance’s voice is at turns humorous, tender, elegiac.” In addition to writing poetry, Kelly has a passion for encouraging young poets and is the Chair of Kentucky State Poetry Society's Annual Student Poetry Contest (2019-2023). In 2019, she completed the Conscious Feminine Leadership Academy affiliated with Women Writing for (a) Change, Cincinnati, and incorporates many conscious leadership concepts into her writing, mentorship, and professional work as a psychiatrist.