BARBARA EHRENTREU

BARBARA EHRENTREU

C Vs C

(Corona vs. Cancer)

Dedicated to Madeline Marx who asked for it

Into this world where cancer still has not found a cure

Came another greater scourge to eliminate mankind

And debilitate society

Not caring for age or amount of money as cancer does not care

Slipping into the body invisibly undetected until almost too late

There is no cure for either though cancer has been around longer

And has taken too many lives to count from this earth

Including my own mother and friends and a dear cousin

All of whom fought it until it was too late and it overtook them

So corona overtakes and cares not for how long you suffer

Or how you struggle to breathe

It is an insidious virus that invades your body and destroys until you

are no longer able to function

As does cancer if it can’t be contained.

Lucky for the world there are ways to stop this deadly cancer and in

recent years many times remissions have occurred, including my

own sweet niece who has beaten it off for now

And people are searching for a once and for all cure for cancer

To eradicate it and make it a defunct disease

But corona virus or Covid-19 has its ups and downs

For some it is just a few small symptoms and a few days of rest

But for others it is a life sentence as they must use machines to breathe

And then only some come off of them and recover

There is no cure and survivors breathe a sigh of relief to be back in the world

Too many have succumbed to cancer and now too many to corona virus

Perhaps if we close our eyes and knock our sparkling red shoes together saying

“There’s no place like home” we might one day find a way to eliminate this

But until a scientist stumbles upon a cure or a vaccine is safe enough to give us all

we will continue to wear masks and wash our hands in hopes of keeping away

this deadly disease-- and keep ourselves safe against a virus that is invisible and deadly

We cannot cure cancer or find a vaccine yet but my hope is that soon this too will become a defunct disease and we will be able to live our lives on earth without the

threat of disease invading them and taking away our loved ones.

Too many have been lost due to both diseases, and it is my hope that soon

our airwaves will not be filled each day with the stories of more and more people

who are getting this disease or the worst part, the daily death toll

as if we are once again watching the numbers of killed in a war

We are fighting a war and it is time to suit up

or stay at home behind the lines where it is safe.

Copyright 2020 by Barbara Ehrentreu

Climbing Back Up When You Are Down

“Nothing is impossible. The word itself says I’m possible.”

Audrey Hepburn

When your world has torn into pieces

too small to think you will ever put them together

and you find yourself searching for a way

to bring these pieces back to their shape

In the weary moments of struggling in your mind

there is an answer for the determined sufferer

For me it seemed my puzzle would never come together

because it was missing a big important piece

one that defined it and without it I thought it couldn’t exist

For how can one exist when a vital part is missing?

Continually searching for a way to complete what

felt an impossible task – to put my life back together

I tried each day to live moment to moment

Believing if I could get through this one brief minute

I could go through the next

But my favorite movie star expressed what I needed most

To hear – it could be done -- for nothing is impossible

I was still there and though my puzzle couldn’t be finished

the way I wished – I could leave it and move onto another

for in order to feel more together I needed to have flexibility

If something didn’t work I needed to move on

I didn’t have to depend on only one way

but I did need to know that continuing on I would achieve my goal.

Many puzzles might come my way

but I didn’t need to solve or complete them all

In doing them, eventually I would come to see

what I had thought was impossible come to fruition

A life devoid of color and light would somehow blossom again

Like a garden where the flowers had been cut for bouquets

will once more have blooms growing in a few weeks

I was the bush with my most precious flowers gone but

the gardener had left the stems and my roots were firmly

planted in the soil of my home

What seemed impossible has appeared again -- and now

these blossoms grow once more

as I realize the beauty and the fragrance of their presence.

Copyright 2020 by Barbara Ehrentreu

Originally from The Garden of Poetry and Prose on Facebook

Finding The Secret To A Tranquil Life

And The Key To Your Treasure

Some people feel life is a performance

where you must always dress up and play a part

They saunter through as if on a stage

pretending to be something they aren’t

Thinking this is the way to a tranquil existence

when everything is dedicated to their happiness

no matter the consequence or the feelings of others around them

They do not deal honestly with most people

For that is against what they are trying to do

Honesty plays very little part in their lives

as they use and abuse the people with whom they are dealing

And these actors in their own lives never find a tranquil moment

for they are constantly on and perpetually spinning the next lie.

As a child I used to want to be one of the chosen ones

And then I learned that I was way too honest to be one of them

My honesty was jammed into me as a child when as a young girl

I grabbed a tiny, no bigger than my fingernail at the time, plastic baby doll

from Woolworth’s and put it in my pocket – then showed it proudly to my parents

But they were mortified and ordered me, a barely seven-year-old, to go

back, confess and give back this treasure I had acquired

Never again would I be placed in that position for not telling the truth

Or for going against the rules of needing to pay for what I chose – well

practically never until as an adult for lack of money --

So I remained a straightforward, mostly honest, fair-dealing person

And found that fame and fortune were never to be mine

since most of what I needed to do, as I learned much older, was to lie,

obfuscate and misrepresent to get the prize

I said no to lying and not fair dealing and chose honesty

Selling insurance was never going to make me tranquil.

And I found my treasure when I learned my words

placed on a page made me happy and I could do it honestly

For the more honest I was the more impact they had on the

people who read them.

Honesty is what I deal in now

And frankly, it has made me tranquil and happy and

Finding others who appreciate that has been my treasure.

Copyright 2020 by Barbara Ehrentreu

Just A Place To Kneel

Apprehended and handcuffed

he placed his knee on the

man’s neck as if needing a rest

He chose this neck of his perp

and pressed down until

it cut off this man’s breath

Nonchalantly he looked around

as if placing and pressing a knee into a neck

was just a place to kneel

And the victim screamed “Stop I can’t breathe”

but the words meant nothing

for this uncaring officer saw only

another — one not like him

and he believed this other darker skinned human

to be a place where he, the officer, had free will

to push his knee into this throat

No one interfered or rushed to the victim’s aid

fearful of the guns worn by the officers

and not wanting that officer to be pushing on their necks

A sad tableau seen and videoed -- of inhumanity

played out on a city street while injustice screamed

and was muted by the pressure of a knee

as a sanctioned action became deadly by the force

of this life-destroying knee.

Copyright 2020 by Barbara Ehrentreu

BARBARA EHRENTREU

Barbara Ehrentreu grew up in the United States in Brooklyn and Queens. She currently lives in Stamford, CT. She has a Masters Degree in Reading and Writing K-12. If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor and After are her two YA novels. Barbara has a poetry book, You’ll Probably Forget Me: Living With and Without Hal.  Her poems are published in anthologies, including Poets To Come: The Walt Whitman Bicentennial Anthology, Crossroads: A Poet's Journey edited by Luzviminda G. Rivera and World Poetry Open Mic Anthology for 2019, 2018, 2017. Her short screenplay, “The Kiss” has won awards at both Indie Gathering, where it won 1st prize for a short Romantic comedy and Action on Film, where it won Honorable Mention for Dialogue in a short screenplay. She has a blog, Barbara's Meanderings, is Regional Director for the West for Motivational Strips and hosts a radio show, Books and Entertainment Tales from the Pages, monthly. She is a member of Greenwich Pen Women Letters and SCBWI