A broken tulip

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We keep in cupboards
tidy stereotypes of ourselves, of others.
We chase the lovely images like polished beads
slipping off a snipped thread,
we scoop these loose stories from the corners
tumble them to pool in our cupped palms as images:

operas belted from balconies in Italy
baguettes are indispensable in France
thousands of handwritten thank you notes flooding S. Korea
Bollywood-style handwashing video by the police in Kerala, India
Turkey’s traditional kolonya hospitality becoming sanitary practice,
Canada stands “Stronger Together”

we want to keep these images,
rubbing them between thumb and forefinger
with all the smoothed, routine comfort of a rosary,
a familiar path for our flailing emotions,
wandering thoughts. We gather them
here, in our hands, we grasp them.

The truth is that no turmeric dish or magnolia kelonya,
no dalogna coffee or ceilidh accordion,
no virtual pub or fresh baguette
can turn back the coronavirus
can turn back the clock.

When we reach for these things,
reach for our phones say, “See?
We are not alone, and people are still people,”
the comfort is not in the old ways
but in the sharing of the old ways.
It evokes a nostalgia of togetherness
even as we are apart. Life has snapped
and our assumptions are scattered –
human hands must search to collect now what they can.
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I’ve loved reading news from around the world, especially of the good things coming from this time of pandemic. How is your country responding with creativity and courage — and what do you admire about other countries?