Putting the Pandemic into Poetry: “In the Shadows”

As part of the new course “Environmental Humanities and Global Health” introduced by Professor Kimberly Theidon in the Spring 2021 semester, Fletcher students were encouraged to engage the emergent trans-disciplinary field of the environmental humanities in analyzing and developing responses to contemporary environmental dilemmas that require the collaborative work of diverse scientists, medical practitioners, engineers, artists, lawyers, and other across a variety of fields.

For the Class Finale project, students chose an environmental issue affecting them, their loved ones, and their communities, and wrote a series of three papers directed to particular audiences in varying tone, style, medium, and genre.

In this stirring piece of poetry, current student Meg Frankenberger uses one of her finale papers for an artistic reflection on the “shadow pandemic” of violence against women that has been intensified by the global public health crisis.


“In the Shadows” by Meg Frankenberger, MALD ’22

To the women who have suffered during Covid-19, who are experiencing what the UN describes as a Shadow Pandemic against women: you are seen, you are heard, you are appreciated.

[Content Warning: Mentions of Covid-19, Domestic Violence, Emotional Abuse, Death, Intimate Partner Violence]


Before Covid:

7.8 billion loved in the sunlight,

7.8 billion breathed in the fresh air,

7.8 billion saw a tomorrow with sunshine,

2 in 3 women experienced violence in their lifetime.

3,237,589 deaths.

How do you combat a pandemic,

that can take 3 million people,

from us?

(social distancing)

(lockdowns)

(vaccines)

(herd immunity)

7,700,000,000 people.

3,800,000,000 women.

How do you combat a pandemic,

that can hurt almost half,

of us?

(                 )

(I need to know)

(I don’t know)

I saw a trend where eldest daughters shared their stories:

Stories of emotional labor, of raising family, of regulating normality,

Work done in the shadows.

I saw a trend where women shared if they were a member of the 97%:

The 97% of women that will experience sexual harassment or assault.

(Stories we kept in the shadows before)

In response I saw a trend where men threatened a day of increased rape,

As if we are not already targeted,

As if I don’t carry my keys between my fingers,

Teach the little girls I babysit to come to me if someone touches them,

I teach them how to say no,

I pray that their no will be enough.

In the shadows I saw mothers abandon a career to learn to teach,

Daughters setting aside school to care for parents,

Grandmothers alone, missing their loved ones,

Sisters forced back to a home they do not fit,

Girlfriends and wives praying their partners stay the person they love,

Girls being trafficked,

Women shut at home with their abusers,

Past and present.

I want to mourn those who have died:

The dead we laid to rest and the dead who walk among us,

A shadow of who they were,

Without ambition,

With grief,

With fear,

With bruises and scars,

Inside and out.

I cannot cry anymore for the lives I never knew.

Women have been holding half the sky for so long,

I fear it will crumble down around us.

We cannot carry it as well as the trauma we have

Deep within our shadows

We are tired,

Our arms are weary,

We have more scars than before,

Our bodies look different,

We stare at a screen hoping that tomorrow we can hug a stranger.

(my God, I’ve never wanted to hug a stranger before)

Now 7.7 billion breathe,

7.7 billion love so much it hurts,

7.7 billion try to keep breathing,

In and out. In and out.

(Do they make a respirator for this?)

7.7 billion cannot trust that tomorrow brings sunlight,

At least 2 in 3 women experience violence in their lifetime.

How do you repair the damage done to half the world’s population?

I ask, hoping you have the answer.

(please, have the answer)

maf