Spring 2020: Reflections
By Ruth Rin

Coronavirus – Unwelcome guest!
To stay at home, we’re told is best.
Can’t have friends in any room
Now we must gather using Zoom.

This is not some media hype.
We truly must rely on Skype.
Six feet apart we should maintain
We hope and pray it’s not in vain.

Existential threat we feel.
Science fiction all too real.
What to learn from this distress?
Food for thought – To reassess

What to do in isolation?
How to glean some consolation?
Re-think our values -- a reflection --
Resolve to live with more intention?

Our lives defined as before and after.
How will life be in the Corona-after?
Shall we wave a different banner?
Will lessons learned bring a loftier manner?

How will humankind emerge?
Will “Us and Them” finally converge?
Shall we ditch the bottom line?
Will “the good of the many” be sublime?

Shall we care for Mother Earth?
Of knowledge how, there is no dearth.
When the dreadful virus ends,
To higher goals shall we ascend?

By Ruth Rin, 2020
Published April 16, 2020 in Wicked Local
​