Small Town America has a Heart
Amy Hill
Our town is small, but it’s a very tight community. One woman made masks and put them on her front porch so that people could come and get them.
Read MoreCOVID Stories
Filtering by Tag: Covid-2
We Rise by Lifting Others
Amy Hill
People around our neighborhood started becoming fussy around the doctor. We were worried not only about him, but about his grandmother. Slowly people started losing their minds. There were threats written on the wall of his house.
Read MoreFlight Attendants on the COVID-19 Frontline
Amy Hill
I monitored the Facebook groups for airline employees. Flight attendants’ posts from Jet Blue, United, Southwest, Delta, American. Not feeling well. Sick. Trying to get tested. Exposed. Quarantined in hotels. Alone.
Read MoreBaby's Breath
Amy Hill
With the help of YouTube, I sharpened my skills to get ready to make my first pattern after a break of 17 years. The whole process was very nostalgic, from fixing the fabric in the hoop, to drawing the pattern.
Read MoreReflections of a Library Mom
Amy Hill
As a library staff member, I came to work, I was at my desk, and I thought, “I’m going to walk around the library, to move around and see all the books.” It didn’t help. Every nook and cranny that usually has a patron in it, the children’s room … they were all empty.
Read More8 P.M. Applause for Spain
Amy Hill
I was upstairs closing the bedroom shutters when I first heard the sound. What was it? I ran downstairs to find my husband and the boys standing at the open front door. The clapping was loud and rhythmic. They joined in.
Read MoreMusings of an Entrepreneur During COVID-19
Amy Hill
Here I have seen strangers become friends; I have seen people come in for a chat after a rough day at work; I have seen young performers practicing their art. We developed a sort of community– they became a part of my life. We exchanged conversations and swapped life stories.
Read MoreA busy mind quieted by collective clang and clatter
Amy Hill
I’ve noticed during this physical distancing period that despite being alone in my apartment and within my busy mind, there are daily moments that demand a quieting of thoughts to make way for collective emotional expression (grief and gratitude).
Read MoreIn Body or Spirit?
Amy Hill
With my body shaking, I returned to my room, before trying to reach out to the instruments of justice. Alas, 8 p.m. is probably too late for NGOs, and COVID-19 too urgent to address cases of domestic violence.
Read MorePassing Through
Amy Hill
wet rinsed morning
wipes the face
the wind whispers
tide at the door
listen
Blessed
Amy Hill
This virus, whatever else it’s doing to us, is defragmenting the world and defragmenting me. Two years ago, I wrote a poem about a conversation with the God of death. In it, he had come to take me away, but I say, “Please let me stay back, because I have a lot to do.”
Read MoreA Work In Progress
Amy Hill
Clarity, confusion, ignorance, observation, springtime birds returning from wherever they wintered, anger, divisiveness, uncertainty, left versus right, fear, awareness, experiencing longer than normal wait times, short supplies, long lines, masks of every shape and size, solitude, loneliness, pain, every possible learning experience …
Read MoreFeeling Lucky
Amy Hill
I was heartbroken, after seeing a post of Seven Sisters from Southdown National Park: ‘They’ll still be there, in the same spot, when we can all get outside again safely’. I’ve been planning to go there, waiting for this perfect spring weather, trekking its edge for hours. Now, I might not get the chance to see its beauty before heading home to Indonesia. I might not have the chance to do things that I wish for.
Read MoreUnheard and Not Understood
Amy Hill
One day early on during the shelter in place, I was helping a provider, as an interpreter in Kiswahili. The first question the client asked was, “Why hasn’t the bus come to pick up my children and take them to school?”
Read MoreA Poet's Journey into Self
Amy Hill
One particular day, when the news about the death figures got particularly overwhelming, I imagined my window to be a patient, body still warm in the newness of death, and the fistful of sky visible from it became a hurriedly-stitched hospital gown providing a morsel of grace to the dead.
Read MoreListening is so important
Amy Hill
The framing of the pandemic as a war (in many countries) has echos of HIV, where the enemy is then identified as the infected person, not the virus. This has already played out in some areas in South Africa, with people being forced out of neighborhoods. Similarly, some provincial Ministers of Health are threatening (and enforcing) forced isolation for those who test positive.
Read MoreScarcity vs Abundance
Amy Hill
There’s a stark feeling of scarcity in the air these days.
Not enough masks or PPE.
Not enough hospital beds or ventilators.
Not enough tests.
Not enough toilet paper.
Not enough time slots for grocery pick up.
Not enough competence in our current leader.
Puzzle Pandemic
Amy Hill
I concentrate. Turn on NPR. Scroll through my newsfeed. Open news article after news article. The John Hopkins coronavirus map. Day by Day. The pieces forming, coming together. So far still to go. Social Distancing our framing. Boundaries created. A world in turmoil. The picture, blurry in my mind. Waiting for completion.
Read MoreThe Sum of It All
Amy Hill
I have never: cleaned, washed, pruned, planted, and painted so much all in the confines of my yard and house.
I now know my neighborhood, like never before.
The Jones, with their quaint cottage,
Old Man Rogers, his place no more,
The Stantons, what a mess,
I really hope to see things getting better soon.
Amy Hill
In India, when the whole country was put into lockdown, an ambulance was not able to pass through our village, because we were so afraid someone would open the doors and we would be infected.
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