This is what we strive for, now. The hope that daylight lies ahead of us. The hope that a flattening curve means life will return to normal. The hope that the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is at an end.

Some societies begin to reopen. Spaniards take to the streets to exercise, while Italians look on in jealousy. Children flock to playgrounds in Germany. Within the US, even in “New York’s backyard,” town and county parks allow visitors for the first time in weeks.

We strive for back-to-normal. Nevertheless, COVID remains. Russia and Pakistan see their largest one-day spike of novel infections. A week after a controversal reopening, the State of Georgia records 1,000 new cases. The smallest county in New York State, outside of the five boroughts of NYC, continues to see new cases, with total infections exceeding 11,000–out of a population of 305,000.

This is not a passing-through. This is labor. Altogether, we are being born again. And these labor pains will not cease soon or easily.

However flat the curve is.

fluttering leaves

bathed in morning sunlight

after days of rain

I keep watching the line

on a logarithmic graph

#tanka #micropoetry #poetry #coronavirus

for 2nd May 2020 prompt: Gerry Muse #205 (occasional tanka prose) Flattening the Curve