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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: Oh Joy, You Are Here

Clara McPherson is a sophomore at Roosevelt High School.
Clara MacPherson
Clara MacPherson is a sophomore at Roosevelt High School.

I’m Clara MacPherson, a sixteen-year-old sophomore student at Roosevelt High School. COVID-19 has made it difficult to see my friends and just have a normal year. It has been draining just to survive. Here is my poem:

Dear Vaccine, may you restore
the warmth of embrace to our lives.
One small prick and a thick shield
can begin to grow in our bodies.
Bodies that have yearned for the touch
of a grandchild and daughter.
Vaccine, please grace us with life
even more vivid and brilliant than before.
I want to live, vaccine,
not just survive.
Surviving is a chore so draining
your innermost will to move and grow deteriorates,
rotting in a chrysalis of isolation.
We are hanging by a thread, vaccine.
But now, oh joy, you are here.