Miss/Not/Love – A Poem

I miss my mom and dad.

I miss my friends and

other members of my heart family.

I miss seeing everyone

without the benefit of a computer

or telephone screen between us.

I miss being able to swim

and the act of losing myself within

the flow of the water.

I miss the physical touch

from the people I love.

I miss being able to hug someone

in a moment of joy.

I miss being able to shop,

not for the items that I would buy

but because it prolonged

the social aspect of shopping.

I miss taking the bus

for the time it gave me to read

and having the story

take me away from the world around me.

I miss physically working with others

and seeing coworkers every day

and being a part of each others lives.

I miss eating out at a restaurant

and listening to the music made

by other voices deep in conversation.

I miss my life as it used to be.

/

I miss not feeling a moment of panic

every time I see someone else

that I don’t know.

I miss not checking the space

between us to make sure

that they are far enough away.

I miss not being aware

of what six feet of space looks like.

I miss not being able

to go where I wanted

without a care of where I was.

I miss not having to count to twenty

every time I wash my hands.

I miss not looking for hand sanitizer

every time I come home.

I miss not waking up with anxiety

and feeling it flutter in my chest.

I miss not having to keep my distance

from my friends and family.

I miss not worrying about

being too close to someone.

I miss not having to take sleeping pills

so that I can actually sleep

instead of lying there until midnight.

I miss not being afraid at

what our world has become.

I miss not watching the news

every day at eleven am and what

the prime minister would say today.

I miss not practicing social distancing

and worrying at every cough or sniffle,

wondering whether or not it was

the start of something worse.

/

What I love is the creative way

that people are managing to stay close,

even though they are far apart.

What I love is the way that

people are finding ways to stay in touch,

reaching out to everyone they know,

even those they haven’t spoken to

in a long time.

What I love are the ways people are

showing kindness to others,

even people that they don’t know.

What I love is that,

even during the fright and worry

caused by this pandemic,

we are learning what to be

thankful for.