Concrete Rose
Daniel Mark Patterson
Here lies Daniel Mark Patterson. He lonelied well.
A fitting epitaph for a plague world tombstone.
It struck me today how much more honest it all is.
We are natural social distancers from birth.
Kept others at arm’s reach
long before it became mandatory.
Marveled at that pang of lonely.
At least we now have a fashionable excuse.
My social media is filling with life stories,
and in the long, secluded hours,
reflection is inevitable, despite the worst of intentions.
The greatest gulf between two people is a closed-off heart,
the briefest distance is an unbarred one.
The more the world shuts down, the more open we are.
The farther apart we are, the more accessible we become.
The more anxiety spreads, the more people pull together.
Common ground.
An emotional terra firma in each other,
a greater insight of self.
It took an apocalypse to start healing ourselves,
it took stripping of material comfort,
it took being forced to give a damn.
The world exhales through carbon-free lungs.
Daniel Mark Patterson
Here lies Daniel Mark Patterson. He lonelied well.
A fitting epitaph for a plague world tombstone.
It struck me today how much more honest it all is.
We are natural social distancers from birth.
Kept others at arm’s reach
long before it became mandatory.
Marveled at that pang of lonely.
At least we now have a fashionable excuse.
My social media is filling with life stories,
and in the long, secluded hours,
reflection is inevitable, despite the worst of intentions.
The greatest gulf between two people is a closed-off heart,
the briefest distance is an unbarred one.
The more the world shuts down, the more open we are.
The farther apart we are, the more accessible we become.
The more anxiety spreads, the more people pull together.
Common ground.
An emotional terra firma in each other,
a greater insight of self.
It took an apocalypse to start healing ourselves,
it took stripping of material comfort,
it took being forced to give a damn.
The world exhales through carbon-free lungs.