Shocked Into Presence
COVID-19
April 9, 2020
©2020 Karla Johnston, InnerConstellation.com
It has taken three weeks
to bring myself to the page,
attempt this weak
expression of our strange new world.
Here in America predictions are—
numbers will peek Easter Sunday
and hopefully then, the curve will flatten.
Worldwide cases: over 1.6 million
Deaths: 97,237
USA: 451,491
Deaths: 15,938
USA jobs lost: well over 16 million
As we wait this out,
quarantined and socially distanced.
I include the numbers in a search for perspective,
think back in history to the ancestors
who perhaps like me felt entirely Incapable
of recording the depths,
lives impacted,
So in mind-numb did not.
I know one True North—compassion:
health care providers, grocery clerks,
businesses that have retooled production
for ventilators, hand sanitizer, PPE.
When asked about the many eyes and hands of compassion,
Master Daowu said,
“It’s like reaching back in search of a pillow in the night.”
There are two parts of me, one who watches:
numbers climb, economy crash,
And another, Master Daowu,
who reaches in the dark—
natural,
effortless,
innate,
fearless.
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