Client Handlandia, photo by James C. Henderson
Categories Poems in the Time of Pandemic, Poetry
Location New Brighton, Minnesota
Date April 8, 2020

HANDLANDIA
James C. Henderson

Let the smooth paper of the spinning globe
slide beneath your palm until it is stilled.
“Stop, stop,” says the virus, “enough of this madness.”
Your hand now forms a new continent
in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Handlandia.
Remember when other things ended in your life?
Your first love affair, remember?
The fear, the desperation
the crying curled up on the living room floor.
The skin of your father and then your mother
cooling under your fingers.
Alone.
A feeling of awesome responsibility come over you.
The freedom from responsibility.
Nowhere to go and everywhere to go.
O, ruler of Handlandia
heir to its storied lineage and its sole subject
What say you?
Every ending is a beginning.
Where do we go from here?
What new world do you wish to create from the old
as you give the globe a gentle push
sending it on its way?