Back to Normal: A Poem
I love you dear, but I will not hear
We can't go back to normal
You seem to think that everyone
Is vulnerable and mortal
We did our part, and now we’re done
With testing, space and masking
Virtual work, school at home
(Just till the threat was passing)
But then our leaders said it’s time
To give ourselves some closure
We hadn’t stopped the virus
We’d just live with the exposure
You chose to walk the narrow road
Still cautious and committed
We chose the back to normal path
The cost, we all admitted
Some would suffer, some would die
(We could not have been sadder)
But brunches, concerts, parties, cruises
Are things that truly matter
When you were left disabled
We insisted it was mild
We showed up for your funeral
Where we dropped our masks and smiled
We’d balked at all your pleading
And the warnings you had spoken
We lived with wild abandon
Till our bodies became broken
We’ve laid to rest our neighbors
Parents, children, husbands, wives
And now we lay here dying
In the prime years of our lives
Sometimes I think about you
And your plea to wear a mask
In hindsight, now I question
Why it was too much to ask
Perhaps we paid an awful price
Perhaps it wasn’t moral
It took some human sacrifice
To get us back to normal
The virus took its time with me
I hoped I would be spared
But I’m absent of my memories
And of everyone who cared
I’ve one last thing I must confess
I’ll keep it short, informal
I wish I’d loved you half as much
As I loved back to normal.
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