​April 11, 2021

As I write these words, these thoughts,
I remain hopeful…and optimistic.
Despite our continuous condition.
And the spite of every statistic.



Irreplaceable

The intruder erupts, and disrupts
Our life’s work, and our sensibilities
Under relentless daily attack
We protect, and we wait, and we adapt
Tied up by the control that we lack

Immobilized, and losing time
Irreplaceable time.

We try to make the best of it
But we’ll never get it back

Only so much we can accomplish
when these walls hold us in.
So much that we are losing.
And such little chance to win.

The new gets old, then the same old
Our unique ambition, and our freedom
Both stifled, and home bound
We play, and we pause, and we replay
Just hanging on, and hanging around

Hopes and dreams, frozen in time
Irreplaceable time.

The realm of our possibility
Lost, before it is found

All this time on our hands.
Another puzzle, the same show.
Waking, again, to the same day.
The get up, without the go.

Living, barely, in this stalled world
Our venerable, and our most vulnerable
Scared and lost, alone with their fears
We enquire, and we talk, and we worry
Uncertainty clouds their dwindling years

A phone call is cold comfort, in eking time
Irreplaceable time.

Vaccination, their only anticipation
As each conclusion nears 

We can only live in the moment,
with constraints on our living.
We take it, and we give it our best.
With limits on the giving.

The effect on our children, all the children
Testing our second nature. and our nurture
Everything matters, no matter their age
We try, and we miss, and we miss out
Without a book, we must turn the page

Life’s experiences, get passed by time
Irreplaceable time. 

Resilient hearts, on tattered sleeves
Worn by the war we wage

Instinctively, we look closer to home,
and choose to focus on our own.
Difficult to look at the big picture.
When we can’t see the unknown.

These sad realities, are our commonalities
Our situation, and our consternation
The less we do, the more we learn
We follow, and we wallow, and we swallow
Another pill makes our insides churn

Living the same day, at the same time
Irreplaceable time.

When the only things that are new
Are variants of concern

So…we abide…again…and we adjust.
Smart to be smart, foolish to be brave.
It is our ability, in this inevitability,
to steady, and to ride another wave.


Yet, my pliable hope, and my optimism,
become increasingly hard.
As I look South, and around…
And see such blatant disregard.