May arrives without note,
the culmination of seconds
becoming minutes, then hours,
then days. We live outside in,
sheltering from a world
turned sideways.

“I can’t wait to return to normal,” she
says, as I try to imagine moments
I once loved (a coffee shop corner shared
with strangers; standing alone, together
in a crowded room; an anticipated embrace)
without holding my breath.

This is the seismic shift; the implausible
revolution. We traverse a tightrope
between two realms: before & after.
How quietly abnormal becomes routine.
How few despair at the insidiousness
of complacency.

05/08/2020

Posted on 05/09/2020
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