“What is remote and what is close?”

What does distance come to mean

In a pandemic?

What is remote and

What is close?

How do we measure the span of

Loved ones state to state?

And those trapped in

Countries faraway?

How do we compute the interval between

Patients in hospitals and their families?

How do we calculate the breadth between

Neighbors in quarantine?

How do we weigh the gap between the sick room

And the living room?

How do we measure

What is lost in this separation?

The tools we have are inadequate

To tally the distances.

The equations too narrow

To calculate the casualties.

We are gathered separately all together

Inside this seemingly everlasting moment

When the distance across the globe and

Across the street are equalized.

May we always remember when our longing

For each other’s touch became universal.

May we never forget

How love became home ground

For all the world.