New poem: Some Things I Am Finding on Zoom®

By Paula Cunningham

Photograph: Getty
Photograph: Getty

April 2020

That the yellow frame is a poor indicator of interest

How nobody knows what goes on in the Waiting Room

That waving and meaningful peering are equally futile

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How muteness may be selected or imposed

That the layout of every participant’s panes will differ in Gallery View

How nobody ever knows who owns the blackbird

That people in rural Tyrone are frequently frozen

How to gaze past the edge of the screen is to enter confession

That you, without question, are leading the crawl to accomplish a multiple chin

How there’s chicken skin on my neck I might never have noticed

That I cannot, now, unknow this

How, in our times, we’ve never felt this seen

That the eye is less deniable than the ear

How the griefs we’re avoiding are loitering north of the screen

Paula Cunningham’s Heimlich’s Manoeuvre, from smith doorstop, was shortlisted for the Fenton-Aldeburgh, Seamus Heaney Centre, & Strong Shine 1st Collection Prizes