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Corona: A Suite

Sandra Meek

 

Almanac

 

Lampblack sparks

arrant stars, flak’s

avatars. A bat’s

a hatchway: gang-

plank. Wand.

At stalls, hands

hack what

flaps, a day’s

catch; a palm’s

wan map charms

data drawn

as dash—what

was strand,

swarms.

 

 

Bluff

 

Truth unspun,

 

untruths spun

murmur trust

 

us. But

drums trump

 

susurrus.

 

 

Whipstitch

 

Silk lining

 

twilight rips,

night’s nihilist

 

vigil civil’s

rising bright

 

splits, twilling

with light its

 

miring mist;

still, midnight

 

is sizing

mind in binding

 

stitch: wind-

circling in -mill’s

 

kniving twists.

 

Eyeteeth

 

Eggshells nestled

between trestles, we

were bells steepled

 

between vespers; then,

fever beget fewer, melt

beset meld: lest let’s

 

beget less, helter-

skelter we sheltered; wed

beget web, the deepest

 

velvet tether.

 

Lockdown

 

World of blossoms

blown

 

to two rooms, two doors

to doom:

 

moot, now, who

to whom;

 

who’s cork, who

monsoon.

 

 

*The accompanying song is composed and performed by the band StarWound.

 

StarWound

StarWound is a sophisti-pop trio based in Athens, Greece. Their music blends a cabaret ambience with elements of EDM and synth rock. They have released three albums: Miles to Walk (2015), So Wrong (2018), and What Do You See? (2024). Their lyrics—shaped by the philosophical and social concerns of contemporary life—combine realism with poetic expression. Their recent project “Interiors” took them to the USA, where they collaborated with contemporary poets and performed at major American universities across 13 states. The songs of their first three tours will be released by the end of 2026.

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Sandra Meek

Sandra Meek’s seventh collection of poems, Bind, in which “Corona: A Suite” appears, will be released by Persea Books in January 2027. Her most recent book of poems, Still (Persea Books, 2020), was named a “New & Noteworthy Poetry Book” by The New York Times Book Review. Other titles include An Ecology of Elsewhere (Persea, 2016), Road Scatter (Persea, 2012), and Biogeography, winner of the Dorset Prize (Tupelo 2008), as well as an edited anthology, Deep Travel: Contemporary American Poets Abroad, awarded an Independent Publisher Book Award Gold Medal. Recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Poetry, the Poetry Society of America’s Lucille Medwick Memorial Award, three Georgia Author of the Year awards, and two Peace Corps Writers awards, she is Poetry Editor of the Phi Kappa Phi Forum and Dana Professor of English, Rhetoric, and Writing at Berry College.