COVID WORLD

 COVID WORLD
  
 I miss my world
  
 I miss rolling down my window to feel
 the brisk 7am air
 as the sun climbs over the mountains
 on my drive to Golden
  
 the bite of Santiago’s spicy breakfast burritos
 brought as a Friday surprise by a colleague
  
 the sound of my own voice
 complaining about the bottleneck
 that plagues Colorado Boulevard
  
 feeling sanctimonious as I wait patiently
 in the long line for Sunday brunch
 at The Universal
  
 planning trips to Amsterdam, Budapest and 
 the plains of Mongolia
 that I’m never going to take
  
 whining that I can’t find a parking space
 within 15 feet of the Safeway entrance
  
 cursing at college students as they zip by on skateboards 
 almost knocking me down
 on their way to changing the world
  
 When we’re us again
 if that ever happens
 and even if we end up being something new
  
 I hope I remember to be someone
 who values eyes that see
 who learns before she criticizes
 who listens instead of 
 impatiently waiting to speak

 who passes money to panhandlers
 instead of cheap judgment
 who never passes a hospital again
 without whispering a prayer for the spirits inside
  
 and most of all
 as Eliot hoped
 who arrives back where she started
 and knows the place for the first time

~ Cynthia Bowling, 2020 ~