The pandemic has impacted our lives on every level. Most of the impacts have been devastating – even deadly. But for those with the privilege to embrace a forced slowing down, there are also silver linings. That was the inspiration for this Typewriter Rodeo poem.
Reconnecting
I went to the park
Just before dawn
The big stretch of grass strewn with tress
Just me crunching across the dew
And stopping before an ancient, twisted, live oak
Putting a hand to the rough bark
Imagining the sapwood underneath
Taking its time
Slowly transporting from soil to root to limb to sky
Trees don’t have deadlines
And catching sight of that sparrow
Turned toward the coming sun, just like me,
I took a seat
Settling in the soft cold grass
Full of sleeping seeds
Wildflowers, dreaming beneath the dirt
Soon they’ll wake up
Soon that sun will rise
And soon things will be back
To “normal”
But I hope when that happens
I will still take this time
To connect with the slow-growing life
Rather than rush to-and-fro like I did before
And as I sit here, beneath the ancient tree
I see dozens of others, dotting the park, like me
None of us did this before
But even a pandemic can have a silvery-green lining
Trees don’t have deadlines.
