In Response to the Pandemic:

​

I lie awake at night

To the sound of my heart beating

In the still dark night

Of a newly deserted neighborhood

It is so lonely

That I can hear the snowflakes falling

Over the closed park missing its children.

 

I lie awake at night

To the vision of my thoughts swirling

With the snippets of the day

Of virus, curve, and number

And the swirls glow with the soft blue of a screen

It is so anxious

That I can hear the snowflakes falling

Over the houses with their own blue screens still aglow

 

I lie awake at night

To the memory of words laid out

Between us in this house

Or those spoken to the cat

Or over the lines of the borders that divide us now

Words missed us today again

It is so grappling

That I would rather hear the snowflakes falling

Over all these quiet humans lying on their sides of the beds

 

I lie awake at night

To the distant grave lament to mourn

The dead that could not be saved:

I lie awake at night

That I should be qualified

To my will to live

And to draw near

And to re-vision

And to reach the good words

And perhaps, to love

Among them all

On the day

When the snowflakes have long stopped falling.

(Co-authored by several of our clients)