Thanks and More at the Quarantine Door

These sonnets signal my return to the CNMI and giving of thanks for a safe return home. I’m on a five-day quarantine and appreciate all that the CNMI is doing to make the islands safe. It has been wonderful to see so many of my former students working on the COVID-19 prevention teams at the airport and here at Kanoa Resort. Thank you to everyone concerned. Happy Thanksgiving todu taotao CNMI!

Thanks, No Thanks, Drawing Blanks

I have much to be thankful for as I grow old
and more to come in this beautiful universe
some things get no thanks as I reach eternal cold
forgotten as my short term memory grows worse

joy watching children learn to walk up and down stairs
no thanks to the grouchy guy objecting to my
wife planting flowers; I love her long silver white hairs
thanks to gazing at the moon after evening showers

I remember my sisters birthday not my own
emailing my 86 year old French teacher
chat with her 56 years later on a cell phone
told her how much she taught me when I reach her

thankful my long term memory is doing well
giving thanks that only passing time will tell.

Thanks Giving to Continued Living

thanks, learning how to swim in a public swimming pool
no thanks for the snowball shoved down the back of my shirt
remembering friends’ jokes from middle and high school
fun as a young boy playing in mud puddles and dirt

for my former students married in church today
a small rainbow at low tide on Kanoa Beach
seeing friendly smiles when someone says Hafa Adai
workers at SPN airport quarantine I used to teach

for my youngest sister’s homemade blueberry pies
my oldest brother’s kids canning moose and fish
brother Peter’s jokes always ending with surprise
my mother’s wonderful cooking on every dish

giving thanks daily not just one time every year
a prayer of thanks for food and those I hold dear.

Thanks and more Out the Quarantine Door

Remember Beatle John Lennon’s song Isolation?
it’s been an earworm since I entered quarantine
I was quarantined on 10/2021 in another location
the house where I grew up was the tranquil scene
two flights to upstate NY to visit my ailing brother

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Joey aka Pepe Batbon Connolly is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is a sonnet practitioner who enjoys stargazing.