by Michele Mekel
In the photo,
my year-younger self,
innocence latent,
discovered too late.
That year-ago lifetime,
in a world before Covid,
so alien now
in this realm rife with death
Living in Happy Valley, Michele Mekel wears many hats of her choosing: writer and editor; educator and bioethicist; poetess and creatrix; cat herder and chief can opener; witch and woman; and, above all, human. Her work has appeared in
various academic and creative publications, including having her poetry selected and read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. She is also a co-principal investigator for the Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 project, viralimaginations.psu.edu. Michele can be found on Instagram @ShaktiEnergy.
