2020, we were in Covid’s grip,
November chill from the start,
Before the year of isolation,
We were ill with a heavy heart.
It came from the Island Lab, in Maine,
where Chinese scientists were.
By Christmas, they all went home in silence
and no one heard.

By month two of isolation,
a sense of time is lost.
In memories,
in moments we can not count the cost.
With two thousand minutes.

It feels like two thousand hours.
It feels like day number two,
my heart cowers.

In Covid’s shadow,
the political stage for control is set,
A tragic tale of loss, lies,
and too much more to regret.
In this strange world,
where logic has lost its way,
In anger’s grip, who do we blame?
Our minds go astray.

November 2021, in Covid’s silent grasp,
we still dwell alone,
Isolation’s realm, two weeks they said,
now we’re overthrown.
I spoke to Mom through screens,
now it seems a distant art,
Thanksgiving passed, and New Years,
we drifted far apart.

No church, they said, no weddings,
life’s events were put on hold,
In the letter of the law,
our lives enveloped and failed to unfold.
In hospitals, to support our loved ones,
we will not be let,
They say the faces of our family
we must soon forget.

Wear a mask, and then, no mask,
a vaccine? Inconsistencies.
Don’t gather, yet they gather,
unmasked whenever they please.
Hospitals and clinics, suddenly,
they say it’s safe now.
But gatherings and parties,
don’t go, church they still disallow.

Easter,–gone. No school, no job for some,
a grievous slight.
Is it only Politics, or is it health?
The media tells us to clash and fight,
A senseless time,
where shadows hold their sway,
In COVID’s grip, Propaganda,
we live with day by day.

In hospitals, in schools, in the home,
we tread with cautious might,
While from our loved ones, and our friends,
we are torn from sight.
Grandchildren were sent away,
Grandparents too, a heavy care.
My master’s ceremony was canceled,
and other dreams-so rare.

Through screens,
we speak our hearts in quiet moan.
No gatherings, no hugs,
our hearts have grown alone.
More contradictions fuel our anger
and fill our head,
In this Covid tale, hands bound,
voice silent, hearts bled.