2020

2020

This was the year where we measured

Our days by deaths and case numbers,

The hours blurred into weeks,

The weeks into months;

When the days were long

And all we longed for

Was to be with those we love.

When the things we took for granted

Became luxuries untold.

When we looked across the country,

The world,

And longed for the normalcy;

Of meals with family,

A trip to the beach,

And time spent watching children grow

That we can't get back.

But when the numbers kept going down,

Our spirits rose.

We stayed home

We stayed safe

We counted our blessings and celebrated the wins,

We mourned the losses and feared for our families,

We wore our masks and cleaned our hands,

Watching the calendar pages flip like minutes on the clock,

Some learned new things,

Discovered old crafts,

Stayed in touch or fell out of it,

We grew outward and shrank inward

We lost track of day and night,

lost our minds and found them again.

We cried, we laughed,

We had dance parties in our lounge rooms

And camped in our backyards.

And when the birds sang

As the dawn broke on a new day

While you were still awake from the last,

And the world was otherwise silent,

We were thankful.

To our comrades in this silent battle,

Thankful we are alive.

To hear the birds,

To feel the chill air of morning,

To have our health,

To look forward to days

When we can smile at strangers

Not just with our eyes,

And hug our loved ones

And watch our children play,

And feel the sand beneath our toes once again.

- Aleisha Hobson 2020