I’ve been saying that I don’t know anybody who has come down with COVID-19, let alone anybody who has died, but that is a foolish thing to say. I guess what is safe to say is that nobody who I’ve talked to in the last couple of days has had COVID-19 but that leaves a passel of people who might be affected. One of the passel is Heather Amber, an old grammar school friend of my daughter’s, and who pops up on my feed every once in a great while. Yesterday, she said this:

I wanted to call this poem Life After COVID, but I wasn’t tested until a month after coming down with the illness which still leaves me struggling to breathe weeks after the long fever ended, and the test was negative, making me unsure what to call the worst experience of my life. I’m guessing there are countless others with stories similar to mine. If you’re one of them, I hope this poem gives you comfort.⁣
⁣

Life After
Though these heavy lungs,
tight as drums, mean
I can’t do
much of anything,
I can still hear
the birds singing.
I can still see
the lemon tree dancing
outside my window.
I can still feel
the safe embrace
of my bed. And
I can still love
this life completely.

Heather Ambler