Talk begins and ends with COVID thoughts contend with growing numbers those infected, rates of dying will it take a global virus to recalibrate the world with kindness? Sunday: what’s left furniture with legs going nowhere tempting to add two more to thei

Talk begins and ends with COVID
thoughts contend with growing numbers
those infected, rates of dying
will it take a global virus
to recalibrate the world with kindness?

Sunday: what’s left

furniture with legs going nowhere
tempting to add two more to theirs
stretch out and let Corona run unstoppable

a morning walk with unexpected pleasure,
neighbours never met
rising up from sofa beds and desks

to cycle jog stroll and step
physically distant
on this new-found common ground

profound as the friend
who calls it resurrection

I’m keeping busy
indoors while my resident spider
continues her outside task
of spinning a curtain across my kitchen window
intricate pattern wispy thin
catching glints of autumn sun
it’s my lunchtime but
as yet she has none

waking now to silence
even the currawong
whose droppings adorn my courtyard paving
has forgotten her song

hearing the earth murmur
it’s the depth of wordless keening
creatures grieving our self-inflicted blindness
our planet lamenting

safe to touch to kiss and hug
to commute with strangers on a train
and not be bothered by a shoulder brush?

safe to shop to meet for lunch
to shake another person’s hand
no longer anxious over human touch?

an answer comes
this too will end
but when has it ever been completely safe

to kiss to hug and trust another with our scars
to shed our masks
and bare our pummeled hearts?

becalmed but not calm
unsure of ever reaching my shore
fearful of a sudden wind
tipping me into chaos
anxious of becoming less not more

from somewhere near my centre
comes a prompt about control
choose what brings renewal
jettison what is dead
let go of yesterday
it’s time to trim the sail