Some merely keep coasting, self assured and unscathed.
Others are reduced to never ending performative indifference of incoming blows where the act of parrying is a fantasy.
Those who have not witnessed the losses of the last year, scoff at those who have, and to those who stay informed.
An acquaintance who contracted the virus is left with only the right side of her face working after a stroke. All the while struggling to take care of her pre-school daughter all by herself.
A client loses both of her parents within a week to the virus, right after the six month anniversary of not having a single project or source of income.
A close friend’s grandfather passes from the virus due to neglect of our long-term care institutions.
You watched dozens of your close friend contract, and partially recover from the virus. All of them valiantly head back to work and never complain. Once.
Yourself left with a diminished lung capacity can not help but blame yourself for you lack of athleticism as you watch yourself slowly regain your stability and strength.
Other timeless ailments such as cancer, broken limbs, and cardiac arrests continue to haunt those dearest to you.
As life continues to batter and bruise, for many, the contusions have long moved past our flesh, our bones, and now onto our organs.
As faltering lights at the end of this tunnel fade, as more uncertainty takes the place of where opportunities once resided, we quietly break.
All the while those unaffected sanctimoniously take pride in not doing their part in ending this pandemic.
While the rest of us are forfeit to continually asses the exit wounds on our realities moving forward.
At least there is you. Together with reason and a common sense of love for all those around us, the light at the end of the tunnel still seems like an exit.
