PATIENCE

Patience calls Americans

to become paragons

of those willing to wait

and take their place in lines

where none had ever defined

our supplies, nor our desires.

We had no need of patience

in a nation beyond the expectation

of delays and empty shelves.

Deeper now we must delve

to discover if we can recover

a sense of community.

Covid shines light through a prism

of rugged individualism

once thought the best of our virtues.

Now, consideration of others colors our quest

to be first and best, and heads above the rest

of those with greater needs.

Patience now becomes the seed

to plant a garden where all can feed

and none go hungry.

We never knew we could be patient.

Until now we had no need.

Could it be that patience

has always been our hidden strength?

The thing that stretches our 

breadth and length to reach

beyond the depth of greed.