These sonnets signal my return to the CNMI and giving\u00a0of 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\u00a0taotao CNMI!<\/p>\n
Thanks, No Thanks, Drawing Blanks<\/strong><\/p>\n I have much to be thankful for as I grow old joy watching children learn to walk up and down stairs I remember my sisters birthday not my own thankful my long term memory is doing well Thanks Giving to\u00a0Continued Living<\/strong><\/p>\n thanks, learning how to swim in a public swimming pool for my former students married in church today for my youngest sister\u2019s homemade blueberry pies giving thanks daily not just one time every year Thanks and more Out the Quarantine Door<\/strong><\/p>\n Remember Beatle John Lennon’s song Isolation? *** These sonnets signal my return to the CNMI and giving\u00a0of thanks for a safe return…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":355846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,23672,23673],"class_list":["post-355787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-cnmi","tag-lvnv","tag-nola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nand more to come in\u00a0this beautiful universe
\nsome things get no thanks as I reach eternal cold
\nforgotten as my short term memory grows worse<\/p>\n
\nno thanks to the grouchy guy objecting to my
\nwife planting\u00a0flowers; I love her long silver white hairs
\nthanks to gazing at the moon after evening showers<\/p>\n
\nemailing my 86 year old French teacher
\nchat with her 56 years later on a cell phone
\ntold her how much she taught me when I reach her<\/p>\n
\ngiving thanks that only passing time will tell.<\/p>\n
\nno thanks for the snowball shoved down the back of my shirt
\nremembering friends\u2019 jokes from middle and high school
\nfun as a young boy playing in mud puddles\u00a0and dirt<\/p>\n
\na small rainbow at low tide on\u00a0Kanoa Beach
\nseeing friendly smiles when\u00a0someone says Hafa Adai
\nworkers at SPN airport quarantine I used to teach<\/p>\n
\nmy oldest brother’s kids canning moose and fish
\nbrother Peter’s jokes always ending with surprise
\nmy mother’s wonderful cooking on every dish<\/p>\n
\na prayer of thanks for food and those I hold dear.<\/p>\n
\nit’s been an earworm\u00a0since I entered quarantine
\nI was quarantined on 10\/2021 in another location
\nthe house where I grew up was the tranquil scene
\ntwo flights to\u00a0upstate NY to visit my ailing brother<\/p>\n
\nJoey aka Pepe Batbon Connolly is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is a sonnet practitioner who enjoys stargazing.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"