(With gratitude to Good Night Moon.)
To give yourself over to sleep at night
And to wake into the morning light
Why, this is the very opposite of dying
Eyes wide open without even trying
Yet now the test begins, first with the throat,
You swallow, seems okay, but shouldn’t you also note
Signs of other symptoms like the breath
Seems to be doing what it’s supposed to, check
Arms and legs activated without pain or ache
And forehead’s cool, absolutely no fever
Unless of course you’ve made a mistake
Problem is you can’t even be a believer
In your own health if you’re also asymptomatic
And a danger to others, so what does one do?
Shut yourself in a room? Hunker in the attic?
Until when? Until there are enough tests to go ‘round?
Or until the conversion of the Jews?
No, better to give yourself over to what’s most easy to elude:
Enumerating things before us, in simple gratitude
So thank you feet that now touch the floor
Thank you window and thank you door.
Thanks for the birdsong in the air
And thanks for my pajamas, now over the chair
And thanks for still noticing such things, my disheveled head
I’m alive and so are you, and thank you, bread
Thank you sugar and coffee, the fine way you melt in my cup
What have I missed? Dear reader, of gratitude there’s never enough.