We share the darkness and the air
We even occasionally talk of despair
Sighing and murmuring, we cover up the fact
That we are always completely separate
Even thrown together, entangled in our shelters
I grow irritated by your habits, you by the welter
Of all my unexpressed wishes
I by your messes, you by all my unwashed dishes
Yet when we long to be alone again
If only to yearn for a truer friend
We grow frightened of it as well
And that in part is the story the pandemic tells
Auden wrote that we must love one another or die
He forgot to add: At our best we can only try.
Universal Good Morning
Here’s the light and here’s the morning
Yet let’s see what’s really dawning
There’s a mirror and there’s a tree
I’m afraid the same old me
Is sending greetings as he did before
I rise having achieved the floor
Now what other feats are in store
To note without satire such simple acts
Beholding my face without a mask
Breathing well enough, detecting no cough
Without inflammation or fever
Lethargic? Aching? No, sir, neither
Being in short the sum total of my okay cells
I bow my head, another day feeling well
For sure the virus is out there striking away
But not me, not here, I’ve another day
So I thank whatever gods may be
For being in this room beside that tree
Good morning to you, sir, Mr. Green
Good morning, everything, even Covid-19.