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Good riddance, farewell!
You've maxed out our patience
You've put us through hell.
.
The year of the virus!
The year of the mask!
Be gone 2020!
That's all that we ask.
.
.
"Obstruction of Congress!"
The Democrats cried
"Abuse of his power!
Our president lied!"
.
But Trump was acquitted —
Mitch wrangled the vote —
And when the plague surfaced
We barely took note.
.
A virus in China?
That's so far away!
It wasn't our problem
But then came a day …
.
A day in mid-March
When Tom Hanks said, "I'm sick"
The NBA canceled
And life collapsed quick.
.
"Pandemic," they called it
We'd live with that word
Along with so many
We rarely had heard.
.
Like "aerosols," "lockdown"
And "COVID-19"
Like "shelter-in-place"
And the dread "quarantine."
.
The rest'rants were shuttered
The taverns were locked
The hospitals teemed
And the loss left us shocked.
.
Each hug was a danger
Each handshake a threat
Each time we went out
We played virus roulette.
.
We learned how to distance —
Yo, 6 feet apart! —
To wash our hands often
To wipe down a cart.
.
We lived in our bubbles
We hoarded TP
We went to no concerts
But binged on TV.
.
Corona engulfed us
Like permanent weather
We sought to stay sep'rate
While also together.
.
We sanitized parcels
And often were grouchy
But all except rebels
Said, "Thank God for Fauci."
.
We fought off despair
As we battled our gloom
We schooled kids at home
And held funerals on Zoom.
.
The health care providers
Were heroes we praised
They worked to exhaustion
For days upon days.
.
We waited in lines
To get tests, to get food . . .
And this was not all
That would darken our mood.
.
Spring
So much had been lost
And so much was destroyed
And then came a killing —
His name was George Floyd.
.
A cop pinned him down
And he struggled for breath
A movement exploded
Because of his death.
.
In cities and suburbs
Folks took to the street
They cried, "Black lives matter!"
They marched in the heat.
.
The young and the old —
They were Black, brown and white —
They knew it was time
To stand up for this fight.
.
Summer
The summer ticked on
Full of civil unrest
While ravaging wildfires
Ignited the West.
.
He said he'd send soldiers —
They might have to shoot! —
Dear Lord, how we wished
We could put him on mute.
.
The country was burning
A nation in flames
At least, sighed the ball fans,
We get to watch games.
.
And while we trudged onward
Some heroes expired
Among them John Lewis
Who left us inspired.
.
We lost Kobe Bryant,
We lost Justice Ruth
Who gave us the strength
To keep fighting for truth.
.
Autumn
While small business suffered
The stock market soared
While millions went jobless
The megarich scored.
.
But then came November
The voters said: No!
We're done with you, Donald
We're voting for Joe.
.
And now . . .
We called the year awful,
Chaotic and strange
And yet on the bright side
We learned how to change.
.
We saw life more clearly
For better and worse
We saw our divisions
And how they're a curse.
.
Divisions of justice
Divisions of wealth
Divisions of who
Gets a chance at good health.
.
We learned about courage
Learned better to share
We learned that it's time
For some major repair.
.
Though Facebook still stalks us
And spies on our tracks
Though misinformation
Is still spread by hacks
.
Democracy made it!
And though it feels frail
Let's pause for a moment
To share an exhale.
.
A new year is coming
It won't all be fun
But let's raise a toast
To the year '21!
(COMMENT, BELOW)
Previously:
• 12/28/20: As the light returns, it's time to make a list of what we've missed, and appreciated, in this dark year
• 11/23/20: How to enjoy Thanksgiving alone. How to help someone who's alone enjoy it
• 10/23/20: Voting in Kamala's shoes --- the power of a candidate's sneakers
• 09/30/20: Tis the (election) season. Don't despair, take deep breaths --- and did I mention don't despair?
• 09/15/20: Winter's coming. The secret doctors won't tell you about surviving it in a pandemic
• 09/04/20: It's September. Already. Again. This year many wish we could skip ahead as an election and cabin fever loom
• 08/19/20: Is 2020 the worst year ever?
• 08/14/20: Mailmen brave the storm, and not just the political one
• 05/05/20: Coronachondria, coronacravings and pandemania: A few words to describe our strange new times
• 04/14/20: If you get the coronavirus, would you, should you, make it public?
• 04/02/20: The pandemic, a professor and a duck named Honey: A story of life in a time of death
• 03/23/20: It's OK not to feel OK right now. But here's how to feel better
• 03/20/20: Befuddled and grieving: As nursing homes restrict visitors in the COVID-19 crisis, one woman fears she'll never see her mother again
• 02/04/20: Where do we find relief in a relentlessly jangling world?
• 12/13/19: Reject the comparisons. Embrace the complication. Be the brightness you want to see. Tips for happier holidays
• 01/21/19: Farewell, Mary Oliver, a poet whose name you may not know, but whose words you most certainly do
• 09/06/18: A breeze of hope blows in the Windy City
• 08/29/18: Another summer. Again, a gift
• 08/17/18: In search of family in a small-town graveyard
• 08/09/18: Courage, kindness two years after 12-year-old blackboy was shot in Chicago
• 07/26/18: An everyday encounter made brighter by a good question: 'Do you have a story for me?'
• 06/19/18: A Big Sister's Guide to Life: Don't chase men and other practical advice
• 06/12/18: For 13 years, 2 friends wrote letters daily. It was a love affair of poetry, separated only by death.
• 06/01/18: What would we do without our brothers?
• 05/17/18: Forget a fiddler. City woman awakens to find a goose on her roof --- and laws about removing it and her eggs
• 05/10/18: A high school senior with college dreams was paralyzed by gunfire. Two years later, he's still pushing forward
• 04/05/18: Remembering the youngest history makers
• 04/03/18: The Parable of the (Expletive Deleted) Comfort Dog
• 02/15/18: Fees, fines, loans, scams: How the poor get poorer
• 02/01/18: When Paul Simon, Daniel Day-Lewis and Elton John say 'farewell' to work they love, should we too?
• 01/25/18: At Oscars time, let's snub the snubbing
• 12/28/17: The real 2017 word of the year
• 12/20/17: The laundry-folding robots are coming
• 12/13/17: How not to waste the last days of 2017