A Glimpse of Starlight

That was the spring when the fields and stands,

Streets and subways sat

____Empty.

Like Easter eggs, decked out pretty and promising life but filled with

____Nothing

____But sterile air.

 

That was the spring you heard the birds sing,

Now that the buses weren’t coming and traffic wilted and

You had hours to sit by your window and hear

____Maybe a little more

____Than you did when there was noise.

 

That was the spring you never left your house

And you wondered whether that was different

Than any other spring,

And you wondered

____If that should make you

____Sad.

 

That was the spring you got to know your friends

Through grainy screenshots and Instagram stories

And you realized pixels and Polos weren’t so bad

____But

They weren’t so great either.

 

That was the spring you got to know your

____Self.

 

That was the spring you decided

To be like the tree and the tulip and

____Grow.

That was the spring you learned

That you could sit alone in a room

____And not panic,

That you could gut your Google calendar

And still have things to look forward to,

Things to look back on and say,

____I did something

____Worthwhile.

 

That was the spring you made friends again

____With the small things

(The ability to text, the tree by your window,

That curve of the street that opens out into a lovely view you never knew,

Homemade cinnamon buns and the first waking seconds of Easter morning).

That was the spring you learned how

____Full

____And fragile

Your old life was and how

____Vast

____And vibrant

Your new life could be.

 

That was the spring there were no Chlorox wipes.

But there was a lot of spring cleaning

And you learned the meaning of

____New beginnings.

 

That was the spring without baseball.

And that was the spring you discovered

That people will still find things to cheer about

____Together.

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