Michael Bihovsky
Three Poems
Paperweight (COVID-19)
Walk with me, my love
Beside a stream I’ve known for ages
It flows the way it always has
It’s we who seem to change
You’re as fragile as me now
When ghosts are made of glass
Yet those out further down the ledge
Are far more like to fall
Walk with me, my friend
Is that what we are?
For even if we two could touch
Would you still want to?
What stands between us now?
Is disease the wall
That keeps you six feet from my heart?
Or is it something more?
We used to be something more.
Time has always flown
But we have never seen it frozen
While passing nonetheless
Stolen.
This stream we dream behind
And when we reach the other side
Still paperweight, still petrified
What might I mean to you?
Tomorrow is a mystery
As we live our lives in history
And I know that if you kissed me
I could die
To reach.
To want.
To yearn.
But when the world returns
I alone
remain
infected
I Dream of Waking
Maybe if I went to sleep
And let my conscious stream
I’d fall from all reality
And waken in a dream
Or maybe if I stayed asleep
For ten or twenty years
Discoveries could save me
From my fate and greatest fears
If only I could place my mind
And body on a shelf
Then maybe I could fall asleep
And waken as myself
The Healing Poem
To those in need of healing,
Who can never quite be healed:
May curses be your blessing,
And may weakness be your shield.
To feel despite the numbness,
And to hear the silent sound.
To see there still is meaning
When no answers can be found.
I hope you’ll keep on searching,
While you also search no more.
For know that sometimes healing
Is far different and
far purer and
far greater
than a cure.
—Submitted on 05/30/2020
Michael Bihovsky is Philadelphia-based composer, performer, writer, and director. Bihovsky writes: The relatively unique perspective that I bring to the COVID-19 discussion is that I am legally disabled due to the connective tissue Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome; I was sick long before this started, and will remain so long after it’s over. In the meantime, I am in a far higher risk category than others in my age group, which has added an extra layer to my own personal experience of social distancing. Online at michaelbihovsky.com
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