Stefan Raffl
Confined, 2020
We were told to stay inside. Not just our homes, but ourselves. New rules arrived daily; boundaries blurred. Spring came and left unattended. Summer pressed in with a quiet weight. The house, once a refuge, became a cell. We watched the world through glass, measuring time in silent afternoons. Car noise disappeared, birdsong grew louder. Trails not six feet wide became one-ways. In the quiet, truths sharpened. Clarity arrived in pieces, like mist burned off by morning sun. The wild kept living.
a frog feasts
in the creek—
I count days
About the Author
Stefan Raffl is an Austrian-born writer living in California. His cross-cultural experience informs his poetry that explores perception, emotion, and meaning—often at the intersection of place and transformation. Drawn to haibun, he values its capacity to reveal the unseen and invite quiet reflection. His work appears or is forthcoming in North of Oxford, the Streur Anthology, and other journals.