Posted by At the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic in April, when my own neighborhood streets were eerily quiet, I had the most gracious gentleman share with me his poem highlighting the effects of this pandemic. It truly speaks to this one time life event where everything became silent:
The Hour of Silence: COVID-19
Where is the sound of rubber pounding the road,
The sound of footsteps scraping the walk?
The wind of chatter cannot seem to unload,
Through a muffled mask with six feet to talk.
The sky is full of the language of birds,
But the shadows below are totally silent.
No one to take in the shade nor to be heard,
As the fear overcomes and dwells to be compliant.
When the dawn breaks will the hour be absent?
Will the time which stopped ever complain?
Or will it always be a new social distance?
Lost in the mind which only strives for the same!
The dead do not come close to those who survived,
The percentage cannot even be tallied;
From the very beginning the expert derived,
Creating so much fear into the hearts who rallied.
The hour of silence was heard from shore to shore,
As the silent killer dwelt among us all;
We ran from something we could only abort –
The very freedoms we enjoyed so much after all.
–Ronald F. Moening, author 2020, from Memories of Everlasting Moments (copyright pending) – Life’s Stories – Chpt. 2
Mr. Moening- thanks for sharing!
-Mark Elliott, MD, MBA