poetry

It’s a time of transition, the world is adjusting to a new norm.  I can’t say I think it will last.  People will get tired of not being around others, and tired of not being able to find what they need.  And they will head out and get what they need and say heck to the consequences. People are not meant to be in isolation from each other, even the strongly introverted have people they want and need to connect with. 

I’ve watched the news reels and seen those who deny Covid-19 is dangerous, or even a virus that can be spread, that it is all a hoax.  I’ve seen those infected with Covid go out of their way to infect others.  Deliberate action to harm others. I’ve watched the Spring Break revellers and wondered at their foolishness.

I’ve noted the fear and the anger.  A mom telling a little girl to move away from the sidewalk to the other side of a car, giving even more than the six foot minimum.  The security guard needed at the local grocery store to maintain order. Signs on floors reminding people to keep their distance.  People can adjust if they give themselves time, and we need to encourage them in their adjustment. 

Adjustments Made – a poem

Alert! Alert!
Stay at home!
The alert came through the phone.
Startling me it seemed
out of a year of growth.

People fail to understand
The need to exercise care
Home from vacation
Yet going to the store.
Children oft in tow.

I have mixed emotions about this need.
To fill the fridge and cupboards bare
taking along the whole family.
It’s so easy to focus on just the self
To forget our larger community.

But the alert sounds
This is not just about you!
Protect families, see to the weak
How will you help
Preserve the economy?

Fear rises, avoidance a norm
And with it a counter point.
Remember kindness, to think of others
To keep yourself and others safe
Sidewalk signs appear

And so we see
Adjustments made
People slowly learning
To be a community.
Think beyond themselves.

The five minute friday word for the week is Adjust.  I hope you’ll take the time to join in with us.  It’s a fun writing activity.

I would chat a while here, but tonight I’m highly tired. My right eye is doing it’s weird twitching thing it does when I’m over-tired, so off to bed early I am.   Join us won’t you?  Miss Kate has provided us with a word prompt again. This week it’s the word risk.  

Tonight I paused
Catching my words
Wanting, as I talked with a lad
To say things as I should.

Tiredness weighs deeply on my shoulders
Foggy thinking clouds my judgment
So taking time is a needful thing.

My lad reading
Asking questions.
Seeing things that
I wouldn’t see.
Asking questions I don’t
Know the answers too, but
Trying and stumbling to help him see.
The author isn’t wrong, but
He hasn’t covered all the possibilities.

A teenage boy
Learning to put his thoughts together.
Asking and challenging.
Covering all possibilities as best he can.
Wondering why others don’t do the same.

Helps me understand the risk I take
When I engage with others who
Want me to cover every possibility
in a short answer.
Helping me see why some take offense
Simply because I didn’t take the time to
consider all thoughts before I answered.
When all I thought I was answering
What a simple question, requiring a simple answer.

But hidden within the simplicity
Some see complexity.
And if you don’t meet the complexity
Challenges and frustrations arise.

I wonder if this 14-year-old sees
the stretching he causes
in a mom 40 years past his scene.