Brendan at Earthweal challenges us to write about the  unsayable nature of the pandemic. 

In my county, levels of Covid 19 are still high. We remain in the "red" zone - a designation of danger.

Recently, I informed someone that the parents of a friend had died of Covid. After a brief silence, she commented: "Well, they were old weren't they?"

 I think grief for ourselves and others has been silent as this world continues to battle the effects of this pandemic.  Perhaps confronting it, speaking of it, is too painful.

LIFE IN THE TIME OF COVID 

Resentment grows silently

Like the weeds in my yard

That sprout unwanted green

Which I cut down repeatedly

Though its roots remain strong

Hidden

There’s so much green I do want 

The kind that soothes or excites

Merely by uniquely growing

Responding to my nurture 

To my perception of beauty

Thriving

Each shade of green grows now

Within me, without my tending

As I obediently cower in a shell

Untouchable, hiding under cover

Surviving while dying

Waiting

***

"Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises."

Pedro Calderon de la Barca