Love in the Time of Coronavirus and Climate Change

 

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Cupid’s arrow rode in on an acorn whistle

last New Year’s Day.

Your eyes shined as the shrill cry

echoed brightly through the ages.

 

In a high sky above

hawks watched

as it bounced off canyon walls

and splashed down waterfalls

then slipped deep between two left ribs

into my unknown territory,

awfully gory.

 

Shaken, I noticed that you were a butterfly so I built a chrysalis.

 

You curled up inside me like I was a hollowed-out wooden canoe.

You closed your eyes like the wind as I turned to water,

and the currents of our fates coalesced.

 

Into the wilderness we go now.

But I am not afraid,

for I know that the greatest monsters

and the most fearsome demons

will only come from within.

 

With this knowledge I take your hand and we step

blindly into the wild.

The thick underbrush of past traumas

tear at our clothes.

The ghosts of our slain egos rise like swamp mist

clouding our vision.

The skies dark above and the war-torn body of the earth

gaping before us.

 

But I am smiling through the terror because you are beside me.

With this knowledge I take your hand

and step faithfully with my heart in this new land.