Musings after Lockdown

And the world awakens.

Reawakens.

Cautious glances,

hesitant footsteps,

tentatively venturing beyond the front garden.

Shy waves at long unseen faces,

scarcely believing the option to do so is even real.

Reemerging from shuttered windows,

eyes blinking in the bright sunlight,

seeing the world anew.

One by one.

Slow, cautious, careful.

But no.

It is not like this.

It is an onslaught.

A rush of people pouring forth from their homes,

crowding the world once again.

Arms wide, eyes up, chests open,

dancing and twirling and running

and laughing and shrieking and whooping.

Fast, loose, wild, carefree…

Careless.

Thoughtless.

Too fast, too wild, too eager, too reckless.

But the sun is warm and the music is loud and the wine is sweet and the food is rich and the faces are smiling and the world is alive again….

How could caution win,

against all of that?

But would we regret this?

Or would we regret not living?

Our souls yearn for it.

To be alive,

to feel and love and laugh and burn bright.

Even if the storm has not passed,

even if the danger persists,

even as the battle inside us and all around us wages on,

even as we know caution must prevail,

even as we hold our impulses back…

The world wants to be awake.