Do ever you wonder
What threw us asunder
While chasing the lightning
Outclamoring thunder?
Well
A tiny contagion
Drop by drop passing
Each breath off-gassing
Infections amassing
So
Did your breath catch
When the world hit the brakes
And calendars snapped, and dumped out their dates
There
Spray, wipe, gel, and mask,
Fatalities counted, buried so fast,
And the news keeps ticking the count.
But also, attend…
Waving to neighbors with smiles so joyous
Seeing background as foreground, stranger as us
The world that lay hidden beneath all our hurry
It stares back and it smiles.
Chalk your walk, make a sign, bring a soup
Pour more wine
Call Grandma, stitch cotton, give food, sew a button.
Intubate, regulate, wince at sore ears
Hold up devices for last goodbyes through your tears.
Exhaustion deep-reigning, Zoom meetings so draining,
Where can I find toilet paper, oh where
Then
At some hour we turn to our beds, sleep claiming
All protestation, all thought, all blaming
Theories, conjectures, outrage, upbraiding
Quiet
