2020s! Now's a time for views--

If only blows and obstacles would stop.

We trust we'd find a future we could use

If only we could reach the mountaintop.

This time is strange. It keeps us in a fog.

It's hard to know what's next, which path is true.

We squint while walking, stumble as we jog.

Our goal? Sometimes the only one is "through."

It's good, though, both to get there and to go.

Know you're moving. Know you guide another.

Our sight is hindered. Feel your compass, though.

Much is hidden. Much is to discover.

To walk on is an antidote to fear.

We're not there yet. We're grateful, though, we're here.

Bek Brooks, 2021

BekBrooks.bsky.social

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It looks to us that there is too much time,

More than there used to be, and cheaply made--

Not worth the work we sink, the hills we climb,

Not equal to the wait that we have paid.

Our days are long but hope and tempers short.

No makeover can fix what ails this room.

It's people we want here, the friendly sort.

Our time with them is not as dear on Zoom.

Yet just as air can hold a mass of liquid,

This fraught and fretful time's both thin and deep.

We have regret and new ways that go with it.

There's too much loss and also change we'll keep.

While we have time, let's find and make the best,

Mourn what's been taken, prize and hold the rest.

Bek Brooks, 2021

BekBrooks.bsky.social

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Pandemic loss like this we have not seen.

A virus stalks its victims far and wide--

And what we give for comfort can seem mean.

When once we used to gather, now we hide.

We mourn for those we learned from, those we kissed,

For those felled by mistakes or killed in hate.

We grieve for paths diverted, chances missed,

And for times hoped-for help just came too late--

And other kinds of loss go on and on.

Our hearts and kidneys, needed cells still weaken--

So many reasons, many loved ones gone,

And sometimes we don't even know the reason.

If grief spared you, it pools in someone near.

It shifts. It takes its shape. Just know. Be here.

Bek Brooks, 2021

BekBrooks.bsky.social

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