Bio
Rosa Arlotto graduated from UofT Erindale College in languages. She is the author of a novel, The Maestro and Margherita on e-book, publisher: R. L.Hartley. The novel is also available in paperback on Lulu. Rosa has also published two books of poetry, Record of a Modern Heart and Flower of Poison by Publish America. A few of Rosa’s poems can be found in ThePoeTrain Anthology (2015), and she has also published a short story in Voices (2020) published by Toronto Writers’ Co-operative. She has published poems in Literary Heist Magazine, Ottawa Literary Magazine and FormerCactus. Rosa has recently published a short story with Ukiyoto Publishing and two poems in Belladonna Literary Arts Magazine. She is currently one of the organizers of the Artbar Poetry reading Series and a new member of TWC Co-op.
Trigger Warning
I don’t not believe things
I want to scream
Impeccable timing
This Covid-19.
All-day the mobile phone
Keeps ringing,
A shutter of confusion
Family, friends and young children
Forced indoors because of the virus.
We have all read the hygiene
And safe distancing regulations.
On the news, people are being pulled
From their homes and retirement homes;
The city is deserted and calm
People everywhere living very strict
By the letter of the law.
I move around restless around the apartment
Somehow get through the day
I have to remind myself
Of some kind of continuity
In a changing world
Like looking in the past from some distance
Where everything is changed
And yet in other ways, nothing has changed at all.
I never felt like this
Idle. But always able to enjoy the company.
There are so many crappy things to do
So many incredible things to do
The littlest, splashing in the tub.
For the relief of the unbearable ennui
I plan things
That I know can’t happen.
I want to scream
Honestly, nothing is straightforward
No one is sure about anything
Nor an end to this plague.
We will make it, no doubt
But I’m obsessed
Nothing will return to normal.