Capsule Stories Second Isolation Edition

Featuring poems stories and essays Capsule Stories Second Isolation Edition reflects on the isolation weve experienced this past year in the pandemic. Read about connecting with strangers over Zoom meetups feeling trapped in your apartment drifting apart and falling back in love with your partner watching your child forget what the world was like before all this learning to love your body again running in the heat just to feel something screaming into the sky because its been a day. Within this literary magazines pages are words to help you feel less alone during this lonely and isolating time.Second Isolation EditionYou think of how naive you were just a year ago. How worried you were about things like running out of toilet paper your career never recovering your loved ones falling deathly ill. Youre still anxious but it feels different now. It feels longer. Less urgent less panicked. Days melt into weeks. You open your laptop one groggy Saturday morning thinking its Thursday. You place your laptop at the foot of your bed and sleep upside down just to add some variety to your life. Is it too risky to go get a haircut? When was the last time you saw a stranger smile at you? These are the questions nowadays-forget about the experience you should be capturing. Now all you know is that awkward silence before the video call ends as you frantically try to press the button wearing a fake smile on your face.But one venture outside will tell you that even though it felt like your life had paused the rest of the world kept moving. People you know or dont know have been lost forever. Theres noisy construction on streets you knew intimately new restaurants replacing your old favorite ones. People are going out as if nothing happened. You feel like the only person who remembers what life was like before what life is like now. But youll never forget how the world changed how you changed. How alone you felt. You will always remember this.