COVID-19

   For all my friends

I talk to myself so I can hear my voice say beautiful things…

Put me in the garden, under the peony bush

and leave me there until I am drunk on perfume.

Put me under the wren’s nest 

so I can hear the babies calling for food.

Put me in the center of the world so when I  shout, 

everyone will hear me

LOVE!

and that velvet word will echo and echo.

My blood is running too fast for my heart. Everyone, 

stop and feel your own, feel your own blood racing.

Put me in the center of the world and I will shout,

TOUCH YOUR NEIGHBOR’S HEART!

  TOUCH IT! TOUCH IT! TOUCH IT!

© Evie Safran, 2021

The President of the Principality of Asturias, Adrián Barbón,
kneels before a memorial in memory of the victims
of the coronavirus ~ from Wikimedia Commons