Clara seemed self-conscious on her birthday,\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sitting on a child-chair just outside her garage,<\/p>\n
Balloons fluttered dreamily as her mother greeted<\/p>\n
The guests and helped with the drinks.<\/p>\n
It was a daytime party set outside her house<\/p>\n
To ease the terrible trauma of social-distancing,<\/p>\n
Neighbors came selectively falling in line with<\/p>\n
The group Dad Yashar supports in Boardgate scandal.<\/p>\n
They stood in small circles talking nonchalantly about the<\/p>\n
Most splendid weather in the last six months,<\/p>\n
There were long pauses in conversations,<\/p>\n
As two months of lockdown had vacuumed out their excitement.<\/p>\n
No one complained about the lack of cake and candles,<\/p>\n
Appetizers, champagne, lunch, and dessert,<\/p>\n
There were no gifts for Clara,<\/p>\n
No hugs and kisses either.<\/p>\n
Still Clara seemed enthusiastic and frolicking,<\/p>\n
Busy with her friends, coolly ignoring the grown-ups,<\/p>\n
Who seemed were just managing to pass time,<\/p>\n
Under the siege of Satan corona but never mentioning it.<\/p>\n
Suffern, New York, May 3, 2020<\/p>\n