Plague Diary III

We turn the sound of the TV up so we can’t hear the noise of ambulance sirens and we reflect on places we’ve seen: Cairo, Venice; Morgantown, West Virginia. The Red Sea, the Potala Palace, the Winchester Mystery House. The Trolly in Lisbon, elephants in the Bronx, the Southern Cross. And places we’ve seen only in our minds: the streets of Timbuktu, the Carpathian Mountains, Macondo.
We read books we haven’t had time for and reread ones we love. We see friends virtually, knowing they’re anything but “virtual friends.”
We long for family.
We long for an old normal.
We try to normalize a new order.
We hold the ones we love the most…at length, closely.
We’re alone together, together alone.
We find freedom in our minds even though we’re trapped in them.

I’ve seen heroes and terrorists. I’ve seen seven continents.
I raised children who do good in the world.
I am a student of Tai Chi Ch’uan, daughter of a magician, and decedent of a miner who left a mystic isle to dig black coomb in tunnels he couldn’t stand in. I do not fear enclosure.
I’m Amelia Earhart, Patti Smith, Alice in Wonderland.
I’m made of the “stuff“ of stars, and we do not fall easily.