Distant But Close: A Pandemic Story Poem by Babatunde Esho

It happened when we hurtled on,
Up and about, living, breathing and holding.
Tales of woe from a far away land: they mourned, we watched.
And the stories continued; of bravery, of sacrifice.
Still we grieved from a distant, not knowing how close they were.

And the human family, still in one big hug,
Spreading love and the enemy hanging on,
Not knowing how it'll soon separate us.
And in this big embrace, hands spanned half the world.
Bringing the foe to the place we all called home.

And that was when everything changed,
When we started waving from a distance,
Hoping our beloved knew we still cared.
Even though our affections, were now half shared.

And as God's children watch the scenes of a plague,
That caught us off guard and amended our ways,
We splintered off into our crafted shells.
Spinning a cocoon: thinking, reflecting, waiting for an end.

And the days unfurled, uncertain like chaos,
While we stilled our frayed hearts-trying to be brave.
And though we couldn't embrace like we once did,
We dug our heels into the earth, the only home we all know.
And watched and prayed for this to pass,
To emerge on the other side: wiser, stronger and kinder.