Inventing a Vaccine
By Fran Abrams
Written Dec, 2020
I toss towels into the washing machine / once each week as if the world / will suffer without the certainty / of my routine / world suffering until a vaccine is invented / inventors make progress / each day one step further / my dryer knows only the routine / of sheets tumbling once each week / world trembling as it awaits / an end to staying at home / scientists work in laboratories searching / for answers to the mystery / of a novel virus unknown / to the world a year ago / I know only repetition / staying home / doing laundry that never ends
Fran Abrams has had poems published in print and online, including Work Literary Magazine. Her poems appear in six published and forthcoming anthologies, including “This is What America Looks Like” from Washington Writers Publishing House. She was a juried poet at Houston Poetry Fest in October 2019 and a featured reader at DiVerse Gaithersburg (MD) Poetry Reading Series in December 2019. Her website is franabramspoetry.com