EJ Antonio
a viral contemplation of 2nd avenue during a pandemic
“Nothing moved.
time stopped like a question...”
Ed Hirsch
let's pretend, it’s a fast-moving thunder storm working its way northward against the sparse tide of southbound automobiles; it leaves a trail of flood waters violently ebbing, flowing, swelling the sidewalks and sewers, drowning church and apartment building basements; let's say, it mimics the thief hoarding every human breath; it doesn't discriminate, doesn't judge who's righteous or unrighteous, doesn't decide who's worthy to be spared, who's not; doesn’t care who’s democrat, republican or independent; let’s say, it knows the body’s weakest points; forced into four-walled crosswalks, nobody escapes drowning breathless in abundant air; let's say, we are becoming used to its abuse; learning to invite it in for Latte or Frappuccino; learning to chat-it-up hoping to understand its next move, learn where it hides the key we need to escape desolate street corners, empty bars.
Emergency Room
the remodeled entrance
to the emergency room
replaces 19th century classic stone
with 21st century steel
& glass floor to ceiling
everyone must see the sick
being wheeled in by EMTs
the newness
& efficiencies
gained from treating Covid
have not changed
the laborious wait time
for lab results
x-ray results
CAT scan results
slow in coming
frustration
at how facades change
but substance remains the same
doctors & nurses swaddled in
protective gear / still fear
every patient is an enemy
How this world turns on a color wheel
when i open my mouth to speak
the sun falls out
spiral scorches the earth
around me / the ash
of hypocrisy
a virus overflowing
like the river that brought me
here to witness a reckoning
not of my own making
but that of would-be-alabaster-gods
engrossed in the practice
of every “ism”
blind to the humanity of me
their deeds mix with sun's ash
rising to drown out their noise
when i open my mouth to speak
a black child's prayer to god
i want my heart free
to be genius without end
not a gun's bullseye
E.J. Antonio received fellowships in Poetry from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Hurston/Wright Foundation, and the Cave Canem Foundation. She has appeared as a featured reader and performer at venues in the NY tri-state area, including Why Not Jazz Room, Arts Westchester, The Stone, the Hobart Festival of Women Writers and Langston Hughes House. Her work has been published in various journals, magazines, and anthologies, including: the Encyclopedia Project, African Voices Literary Magazine, Black Renaissance Noire, The Mom Egg and Killens Review of Arts & Letters. E.J. is the author of two chapbooks: Every Child Knows, Premier Poets Chapbook Series 2007 and Solstice, Red Glass Books, 2013. Her solo jazzoetry CD Rituals in the marrow: Recipe for a jam session was released in the fall of 2010. E.J. is a founding member of the Jazz & Poetry Choir Collective, which released its debut cd We Were Here in spring 2020, and she is a founding Board Member of the non-profit Arts organization One Breath Rising.
