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.
annarino writes 