tomorrow can be iffy

 pandemic’s effects

the pandemic has messed with our expectation 

of repeated pattern within which we can live,

any sense of mortality can slap us to wake up

and realize the universe gives us no guarantees of tomorrow,

we should live every day as if it might be our last,

the pandemic, though, has shouted at us,

to realize that we cannot expect tomorrow to be like today,

distances, and masks, and abandonment of tradition

forced us to give into fear,

and to have less for the more might be deadly,

it is spring in the Smokies,

and we are able to be here with the wildflowers again,

as if we are pilgrims on a yearly quest

that the pandemic denied us,

we all are sentenced to die,

the pandemic has forced us to realize

that the time of our end

can come way too soon.

by Henry H. Walker

March  30, ‘22