Third Wave

by Brenda Gunn

I stare at the sock
and dust bunny
peeking
from just far enough
under
the couch; a solo Cheerio,
strayed somehow from
the breakfast table
almost made it
to the line between
the kitchen tile
and where the hardwood starts.
Rebel yell. I renege, surrender, walk away.
I have decided
all’s fair; rip a page
from his playbook
and simply refuse to see
the obvious
Who’s coming over anyway?

Verse for out Times (house arrest haiku)

by Brenda Gunn

Old Hat

Quarantine? Stay home?
Two words: retired writer
My days are unchanged



Availability

Are heavy duty
commercial weigh scales open?
No one’s hoarding snacks



Measurement

My days dawn soft, rise
to a gentle boil; climax
happily like the



Measurement contd

dog-eared Harlequin
romances my grandmother
used to read in bed

Creeper

by Brenda Gunn

I like and share funny
teacher memes and facebook lists
from Russian bots that want to know if you remember what
a flour sifter is so they can hack your sorry
ass. Like they’d get anything
out of my over-taxed online shopped-out
card(s) and maxed-out line of credit. When I see on the invoice
that I bought the same bestseller twice and dropped
a bundle on US exchange and shipping
paint by number kits
and thousand-piece sappy winter-cottage
scene jigsaw puzzles I loop Jim Gaffigan stand-up youtube clips
and find excuses to get teary-eyed over
extended heart-felt soliloquies
from front line workers and watch Tik Tok
vids of the single guy with the heart of gold who keeps the stray
kitten that showed up hungry, mewling at his door.
I just want to know where
this too-good-to-be-true prince charming
do-gooder when I was a much younger, singler crazy cat lady?
The feel-good moments are short-lived;
barraged anew with trolling negativity,
I unfollow Drs. Phil and Oz and that My Pillow Guy and sign
virtually every petition posted for
increased and streamlined
access to and additional doses of vaccine and thank the ice cream
gods that no one’s hoarding
Haagen-Dazs



Sent to us on: February 9, 2021

How will the Coronavirus Pandemic shape storytelling for the years to come? 

Calling all Dispatchers!

San Francisco Creative Writing Institute is pleased to announce we were awarded California Arts Council Local Impact Grant! 

With support from the California Arts Council, San Francisco Creative Writing Institute will present Dispatches from Quarantine: hybrid storytelling events and writing workshops. 

The project is scheduled from January 2023 to August 2023!

We will be broadcasting the public readings and discussions on our youtube channel as well as hosting four creative writing workshops with writers from diverse genres. The project will continue to be interactive as we will encourage viewers/participants to send in their “dispatches” to be published on our blog, keeping it alive as a living document.

 We invite you to submit a dispatch: 

Suggested Theme:

What is your Covid story? How will you tell it? 

You can send submissions in any format to us via email at: All genres will be considered for publication on the blog. submissions@dispatchesfromquarantine.co  The theme should be somehow related to this time of Coronavirus. We are particularly interested in posts/ideas/writings from 2022-23.

Submissions can be sent by email to: submissions@dispatchesfromquarantine.co

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