Bavaria’s Spring 2020

Some flowers had lifted their tiny heads:
Purple and yellow hues –
harbingers of spring.
Sitting outside once again –
cool beers and conversation flowed.

Surely winter will not return.
But the cold we missed then
now stormed in with alacrity.
No precipitation, just bitter wind.
Frail heads of flowers drooped;
bees’ excursions to the cherry tree abandoned –
their soothing hum silenced by the sun’s frosty rays.

We too retreated just in time.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged simultaneous
to winter’s reappearance.
Stay home, the order said –
Germany’s Bavaria led the way and we followed suit.
Apprehensions and staying put –
we only ventured out alone and
with a member of our family.
“Social distancing” became the norm –
a new word combination suddenly in vogue.
Collective memories of medieval strictures –
then it was the Pest.
Quarantine not new to Europe’s
recollections or languages.

Why be outside anyway
in that bone-chilling cold?
Rather quarter inside and rediscover love and
yell out festering frustration.

Loving and fighting –
babies in nine months and divorces maybe sooner.

Spring in Bavaria.
The returning cold and the invasion of COVID-19 –
hoarding food and oddly rationing
paper for the toilet.

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Hang in there though:
Soothing warmth will return,
the virulent virus will abate,
flowers will recover,
bees will fly again, and
we will sit outside in the sun.

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