The world is wider than I recall
and emptier than it should be.
Where have so many millions gone?
Covid took too many from me.
Now, As I venture forth again
I note the changes new to me:
Fewer check out lines open
where I can chat with clerks
who may offer the only conversation
I shall have that day.
Longer waits in self-check-out lines,
for coffee, burgers, groceries, medications,
buses and airlines.
Play dates carefully screened and often up-ended
by bouts of surprise illness, unintended.
Careful scrutiny of each gathering attended
by risk-takers and isolaters frustrated
and ready to accept the fate
breathing without masks indicates.
The pace of life becomes a distraction.
Forward process toward goals proceeds
in fits and starts reducing our momentum.
It amazes me how well we all cope
with uncertain patterns not before seen,
futures unknown yet still filled with hope.
The one thing which has not changed
is our determination to remain the same,
to keep on the path to parts unknown,
to find an adventure far from home,
to explore new people, places and things.
We are still alive. We bravely take wing.
There is life to live and love to give.
There is love to receive and life to accept.
We constantly find faith deep within
that joy is still ours, if we only give in
to the need to connect with others
and breathe life in.
annarino writes 