[“Even Andrew Cuomo finds time to call his mother,” explains
Oregon poet Christine Hamm, addressing the emotional impact of the
long quarantine. ] [[link removed]]

PORTSIDE CULTURE

QUARANTINE   [[link removed]]

 

Christine Hamm
May 8, 2020

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_ “Even Andrew Cuomo finds time to call his mother,” explains
Oregon poet Christine Hamm, addressing the emotional impact of the
long quarantine. _

,

 

_QUARANTINE_

BY CHRISTINE HAMM

Even Andrew Cuomo finds time to call his mother, 

says the text I send to my firstborn son, 

referring to the  [[link removed]]governor of New York 

whose current job is attending 

to a global pandemic 

with the world’s epicenter in his state. 

“My mother is not expendable,” 

the governor says while the whole world listens, 

including presumably, 

the President of the United States, 

whose own deceased mother 

one tends to wonder about. 

It is at times like these that I remember 

my son has two parents, 

one of whom is not me; 

and two sets of genes, 

none of which could be described as 

touchy-feely. 

Yet I have no doubt my son loves me dearly 

and, by no means, considers me expendable. 

_Au contraire_, 

more likely he considers me invincible, 

despite my status as a member 

of the frail elderly. 

But, truth be told, we are all human, 

and now while touching is forbidden, 

feeling is uppermost, 

which likely explains the reason why 

now, more than ever, 

even Andrew Cuomo finds time to call his mother. 

Prior to moving to Portland, Oregon in 2016, Christine Hamm spent 20
years as poet laureate for _The Concord Monitor_ (NH), summarizing
the previous year in rhyme for its annual New Year's editorial page.
She also wrote feature articles, primarily Arts & Entertainment, for
that paper and other local, state and national publications for more
than a decade before serving five terms as a member of the New
Hampshire legislature. She has interviewed numerous writers and poets,
and studied with Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet and MacArthur Fellow,
Charles Simic, at the University of New Hampshire.

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