April 20, 2021
I call them “Covid Homes.” We’ve all got them in our neighborhoods. Covid Homes! They aren’t for sale. They’re lifeless. The yards are somewhat mowed. The trees sort of trimmed. But the owners haven’t been seen since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020. Every one of us walk or drive by them. I’m talking about homes that were once vibrant with cars parked in the driveway and neighbors seen talking to each other. A year and month later the people are still gone! Covid Homes. If something such as Covid 19 made them ill, why are the homes still sitting empty during a time when the New York Times is screaming, “The housing market has gone empty. What’s happening on the inside of a Covid Home? Does it affect the value of the hood? The Covid Home looks approachable to the passerby but they’ve been empty for a very long time. Can these empty dots on a Google Map be haunted? I would love to step inside! Out here, we’ve moved forward in time. In there. Time is frozen. It’s exactly the way it was left all those weeks and months ago. It reminds me of April and May of last year. We took our daily walks through strip mall parking lots. Looking inside the stores that were forced to stop. The posters on the wall were stuck in February and March. Many of the businesses never recovered. What lurks within the framing of a Covid Home? Does it smell like dust? Has the paint on the walls faded? The oil spots on the garage floor have they dried? I want to step inside. For we all know every home has its own personality. I want to go inside to just listen to the moments of what it was like and is like when time stands still.