Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists

Catherine Murphy, 11Chicago, IL Joining Together at a Distance Catherine Murphy, 11 We were not expecting this blow to our lives. Each one of us tired of being stuck inside Reaching out to shake a hand could mean someone would die Even when the first U.S. case was identified Inside was where we wished to hide. Now, as this is nationwide Together we must sanitize, Help each other and become unified In this together until this subsides. Still it continues to intensify This is the time we must listen to the qualified Or suffer the consequences of it being defied Getting together is not to even be tried Everyone we must remind This is not a time to be disinclined Hard though, when it comes to social distancing that is not fine Everyone is going through the same ride Remember to stay on the bright side. This poem is written to be read vertically, as well as horizontally. If you are reading on a narrow screen, you can pick out the first letters of the first lines, in bold.

Vivaan, Kartik, 11 Horgen, Switzerland COVID-19 Poem Vivaan Kartik, 11 Once there were so many of humans to be seen a life of peace and happiness was all that could be seen   But soon there were too many land became scarce for houses to be built so what we did was destroyed the world forever we cut down trees without any guilt   Global warming took over and humans began to sweat “oh what have we done” they cried as they met   But what we sowed had to be reaped and nothing could be done panic was rife but action there was none   But suddenly a virus struck and global warming was forgotten no car could be seen they were all hiding in a den   All was shut including mouths people couldn’t meet and the economy raced south   People were not going to office no plane soaring in the air no cars racing past on the road and so we inadvertently learnt to care   But then slowly but surely things got better global warming decreased Human socials were revived and lockdowns were eased   I hope it wasn’t the disease that helped us learn to save the earth instead of letting it burn   It really is a shame that so many had to die for us to learn a lesson and only now we begin to try.