Published in 2020

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://www.strawdogwriters.org/pandemic/leverettvillagecoop

The View from the Register of the Leverett Village Co-op by Karen L Traub

Posted on June 24, 2020

Karen L Traub lives in the woods of Shutesbury and is a new member of Straw Dog Writers Guild. A student in the Newport MFA, Karen’s first published essay appeared in Brevity Online. She serves on the Editorial Board of Quabbin Quills and is writing a memoir about her local library.

The View from the Register of the Leverett Village Co-op

Fresh baked bread, eggs and cheese
Yogurt, muffins cookies,
Coffee, soymilk, wooden stirrers
Plexiglass

New life from the ashes
As people slow down and stay close to home
A food Co-op nearly squashed by big box stores revived
Nourished by our remembered belief that together we can do good

The café wrapped in hazard tape
Marks on the floor where it’s safe to stand
The Covid Do-si-do
Two shoppers pass with care

Gloves, hand sanitizer, bandanas
The nicest grandpa looks like a gangster
Or a cowboy
Faces uncovered
Are now the ones we fear

Rattlesnake Ray
With snazzy pointed sideburns
Sniggers like a cartoon bad guy at my mask
“You look like a doctor”
Next time he comes in he is wearing one

From the register I see
People meeting, not on Zoom
In the flesh, six feet apart
Arms crossed in the sign language for hug
“Stay safe” the new goodbye

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Voices of the Valley Anthology June 25, 2020

https://quabbinquills.org/

HEMLOCK HOSPICE

Karen Traub

As they lose their needles and then their life

I watch the giants fall

I think of every person I have known and loved who has died

And I remember to live

New life will sprout from this decay 

There will be more light in the forest 

More sun in the winter

And a view of the dawn each new day

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

POSTED JULY 16, 2020 MULTIPLICITYMAGAZINE

https://multiplicitymagazine.com/2020/07/quickwork-no3/

Mom, Dancing

by Karen Taub

One of my best days at work as full-time grilled-cheese-sandwich maker, homework tutor, boo-boo kisser, TV warden, and part-time Scheherazade in purple, red and gold sparkles, was when the little girl sitting cross-legged in the front row at the Girl Scout Jamboree stared googly-eyed at me on stage, dancing and playing finger cymbals, and announced “She’s beau-ti-ful.” She wasn’t seeing the wrinkles and the worries, the mini-van driving, mortgage-paying mortal, but the reflected possibilities of her future, a woman feeling good in her skin while kids, Dad and the dinner dishes wait at home.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------