Image: Visuals via Unsplash
When it was all over, each breath was like a eulogy, a remembering. Holding hands Weighed a thousand tonnes. And I found myself looking for spaces in a day: friends gossiping over coffee in a park, colleagues patting each other on shoulders, train conductors telling facts about journeys, clinking glasses over chequered tablecloths. Some things were privilege But some things - just human. All those new faces, coursing down streets, letters to be opened. Now, after, No new mail. Isolation - Grows like a tumour, Large enough to blot each other out. Who knew distance would efface the sun? Love, intimacy, was enough to warm us. Instead, a black warning Death Forces us to hide. Perhaps the morning birds have song enough to lament, To help the whole world grieve? - I can’t. I can do nothing but wait, it seems, To understand this life - after To try and sail down a river of time, whose dark waters look so different, So unfamiliar. I wish I could tie myself to you all, Weave a ribbon between us, between everyone we know, Until the earth is covered, a beautiful drape - Laughter makes the ribbon shake Sends vibrations Along our lay lines. And this web is just beginning - But Oh, how it breaks my heart to think Of sailing dark waters, all alone!