Hands scrubbed till they bleed.
School replaced with videos.
Carts crammed with toilet paper and guns.
Yearning for basketball, friends’ hugs,
the gym, we grumble in the space
between denial and loss.
Italian doctors warn
that arrogance protects
as well as prayer.
Soon, the hospitals
past capacity.
The old left to die.
The smog cloud over China’s
gone, the canals of Venice
bloom with dolphins and swans.
Will we
lean from balconies
and fill the sky with song?