I yearn to return
to what was before
the doors
opened
to set us all free.
When love was as desperate
as our longing to see
movies on screens and eat
styrofoam meals
set atop tables and plated.
Time inhaled and counted
in heartbeats and dread,
petty distractions measured and shed
in favor of factors to finally solve
life's prime, deep-rooted equation.
How quickly we shrugged off
the sunshine and trees
to buckle and mask-up for essential needs
that brought us no closer to closure from fear
nor farther away from disease.
Collective amnesia
has swallowed and spit out
our distilled
and clarified
bond.
Now frustrated, restless,
bored with our pain,
everything new
is old again.
(*this took me three hours)
