A Plate of Pandemic
Published Quarterly on the Solstices and Equinoxes
Creativity in Times of Crisis
Jessica Barksdale is the author of the poetry collection Grim Honey and the novel The Play’s the Thing, both published in 2021. Her novel What the Moon Did is forthcoming February 2023. Recently retired, she taught composition, literature, and creative writing at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California for thirty-two years and continues to teach novel writing online for UCLA Extension and in the online MFA program for Southern New Hampshire University. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband. Jessica's website is www.jessicabarksdaleinclan.com
Wildfire smoke, heat dome, heat wave, pandemic, Delta, Omicron, two years of disaster we survived, at least for now. Exaggeration, but not. So convenient to have N95s hanging around. Dogs breathing in what I don’t, tender paws on 8 pm sidewalks, still hot to the touch. Later, south sides of Douglas Fir, rhododendron, […]