What Rough Beast | 06 26 20 | Maggie Hinchliffe

Maggie Hinchliffe
Indoors [Pandemic Poem #5 | April 3, 2020]

This morning, after accidentally
Burning my tongue on a cup of coffee,
I buried myself beneath an over-
Sized blanket on the living room couch. From
This mummified position, and peering
Through a condensation-covered window,
I counted all the neighborhood passers-
By: There were three middle-aged joggers, two
Hyper-active dogs, and a single man
In his pajamas I had never seen
Before: I wonder if he reads any
Fantasy, I thought while returning my
Attention to warrior Wistan and
His mission to slay the dragon Querig.

—Submitted on 04/28/2020

Maggie Hinchliffe is a classical pianist with an interest in the interaction between text and music. She recently completed a master’s degree in collaborative piano at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Several of her Pandemic Poems have been set to music by Ben Morris, and may be seen and heard as performed by Hinchliffe on YouTube:

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