Zoom

you save us from drought, from the
xeriscape of lockdown, the world
we inhabit delirious, the desperate
visions of rising fever.

Unwilling aliens, how we crave
touch but can’t have it, how we
struggle for compassion, for
resonance beyond mere sight:

quarantine-captured, home-confined,
perplexed and fearful. Who would cry
out for oxygen? Who would sigh
never, never again, who but ourselves

murdered for want of air, for
lack of care, for the sheer sake of
killing? Who could live this cruel
joke? Zoom, you give what you can,

images in sound and motion, we
hear and see but can’t touch. Zoom,
give just a little more, give a
feather’s weight of full contact

even imaginary, better than this
desert of the eyes alone. Drive off
chill isolation, callous desolation.
Bring back the world,

amen.

Books Available
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside