My Escape

I sit alone with my two cats

Day after day I have no one to talk with.

I see no friendly faces or hear friendly voices.

I will escape this solitude and silence forced on me

By this world-wide pandemic since I can

No longer even attend in-person meetings.

The pandemic is the reason for my imprisonment

So there is no place in the world

I canescape with most borders tightly closed.

I cannot just jump into a rocket ship and fly to the stars

I am too old to qualify as a civilian astronaut

And I certainly can’t afford to build my own.

What is left to end this forced isolation and solitude

That will help me to feel alive and vital

Once again until the pandemic ceases?

Ah, I think I know how to escape this silence and torture

As I escaped many times in the past

I will carefully select a book from my collection.

I will escape to worlds created by words 

That carry me to other times and places

And let me escape into someone else’s imagination.