Title: COVID 19 Let’s hope we can put food on every table!
From the first COVID patient in November 2019, to Italy’s mass deaths in February 2020,
We said, don’t worry that couldn’t be our story!
From cherry blossoms and yellow magnolias blooming in mid March, to April the 2nd, when the number of infected reached one million worldwide,
Our globe turned upside down.
We continued to argue and fight as the number of unemployed crept up – 40 Millions in U.S. have lost jobs!
We should take this as a wakeup call!
Our nurses, those on the healthcare frontlines, patients and those who have lost their jobs, we need to do better for them all.
Let’s not waste time shrugging shoulders and rolling our eyes, fighting, debating and taking sides.
Even the deadly snowstorms in March, couldn’t stop our wars.
This is our wakeup call. Let’s not miss our chance again this time.
From schools closings, to executive orders that instructed to stay put inside, the unimaginable fear took over our lives.
We drifted even farther apart.
We socially distanced, hoarded tissues and food cans.
From unemployment reaching its highest mark and the stocks come crashing down, to lack of PPE’s, ventilators and hospital beds,
The Covid took its toll and it was impossible to hinder its curve.
Amidst the fights, we lost our incomes, we are devastated for we can’t feed our loved ones.
Meanwhile the trucks filled with bodies as the vicious disease took our loved ones, one by one.
We tried our best to stay positive amid the murderous pandemic disease.
From people falling sick oh so badly, to people offering to shop for the elderly at risk;
From vanishing sanitizers on store shelves to bored people finding creative ways to stay closely engaged;
Some hoarded, some donated and others became expert mask-makers.
From laughter we shared listening to CoronaVirus version of our favorite songs, which expressed our longing for just one more chance to eat a burger at a restaurant; to memes about using toilet paper as currency and tears that we cried together as we grieved,
We tried our best to beat COVID!
From in person meetings, to figuring the password on zoom we tried to stay connected online.
At the end the only thing we could do was to sanitize and clean. Our homes and hands were cleaner than any other spring.
We lived through it all.
Fear or fierce all the nights will end in daylights, we will survive and the days will be saved one at a time.
Our worst nightmares will become memories. We won’t let them defeat us as an enemy.
But then again only time can tell how many more disasters we will face.
If we seize this chance we can prevent future tragedies.
Imagine food in every family’s home; even equality as a commonplace; better gun laws in place so parents can feel at ease; perhaps save humanity and our planet in better ways?
Let’s not wait for another wake up call!
Let’s hope this time around we put our masks on our differences and close our eyes to our judgments.
It deters me to see people so focused on COVID schemes! For it will break us apart and hinder our esteem. Let’s find solutions, please!
Let’s hope we continue to care and trust and not let any fears divide us.
Let’s hope that we can have hope for humanity, hinder our compulsion before calling one another an enemy.
Let’s hope through this darkness we find light and restore the bonds and humanity in mankind.
Let’s just find reasons and ways to get along for heaven’s sake.
I hate to break it to everyone but everyone’s blood runs red in his or her veins. We all are created the same. Your pain is my pain. We all feel each other’s pain.
Copyright 2020 by Mary Kavakoli
Bio:
Mary Tavakoli is a poet from Maryland. Her profound passion for poetry and philosophy began by reading and reciting the ancient Iranian poetry of Rumi, Hafez and Saadi at a young age. Growing up amid revolution and war, she found herself pondering to understand the meaning of life, death and justice. Through these adversities, she adopted a view of oneness well before she learned about this philosophy. Later in life her interest for science inclined her to earn a degree of Doctor of Pharmacy from University of Maryland in Baltimore. Today, Dr. Tavakoli is a healthcare professional with continued passion for spirituality, poetry, writing, art and painting.
Her quote reflects her passion for the work of legendary poets,
“Blessed are the ones whose words of poetry set the paper on fire and keeps on feeding the flames to lit the path to our heart, soul and passion! Without poets, pen and paper can’t flame the fire of life.” – Dr. Mary Tavakoli
Donation Appeal:
Throughout June and July, we will be presenting on this web site work by poets and artists responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope you will find these works relevant, comforting and inspiring as we all cope with the economic and health-related fallout.
As you view the work on this site each day, we would like to encourage you to donate to the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC). Their mission “ is to feed our neighbors in need by providing dignified access to supplemental groceries. AFAC is seeing a record number of families due to the COVID-19 pandemic as families who never thought they would ever be in need are now showing up at our doors for much needed food.” And, in keeping with our hunger-focused efforts, you may also want to visit the Poetry X Hunger website where poems by many poets are posted and are being used by anti-hunger organizations.”
Please consider donating to AFAC. If you do, let us know which poet or artist inspired you so we can send you a personal thank you.
Your poem chronology unfolds with strength and truth. We are bonding together. We need to do so more!