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A new project looks to tap into the hope that comes with finally getting a COVID-19 vaccine through poetry.

The Global Vaccine Poem: I Miss Our Kind

Danusha Laméris
Expressive Photographics/Photo: www.expressivephotographics.com
Danusha Laméris - Dear Vaccine

I’m Danusha Laméris, and I live in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains on a few acres. I have been lucky to have that space during the quarantine year. But I’ve really missed the unexpected contact with people, and at this moment, I am two days post my second dose.

Dear Vaccine,

I miss our kind. Remember

how awkward we were?

Too many people in a small café.

Bumping into someone

saying I’m sorry. Spilling popcorn

on a stranger in the dark.

We didn’t know how much

we needed each other.

Dear Vaccine, women once had

names like yours: Maxine, Doreen,

and Bernadine, which means

“strong as a bear.” I imagine you

lumbering through the wilds

of our cellular forests, showing the way

through thickets of berries

to fish-filled lakes.

Oh, lead us back to the wilderness

of touch, back into each other’s arms.

Take us to our green and possible life.