Unless you lived with him, you’d not know
anything were wrong. He forgets what day it is,
then what he planned to cook. In the middle
of the pandemic he can’t go out, so he never
has to panic, search for where he parked the car.
My job is to protect him. He’s 76 years old
and has diabetes. I’m watching over him,
won’t let him take any risks. I double check
the shopping list, won’t let him go to the market
and pick among the beef ribs, which is his delight.
I, who’ve only done the eating, never the planning
am doing the shopping as well. He is vulnerable,
the elderly man with the pre-existing
condition you read about in the newspaper.
E Laura Golberg
"Caring for my Husband During the Pandemic" is one in a series of poems that forms the backbone of E Laura Golberg's new manuscript, Commitment. Other poems of hers have been published in Rattle, Poet Lore, Birmingham Poetry Review, RHINO, and the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, among other places. She won first place in the Washington, DC Commission on the Arts Larry Neal Poetry Competition and her poem Erasure has been nominated for a 2021 Pushcart Prize. Her website is www.ELauraGolberg.com/