So we try our best. We wake up in the morning and put on nice clothes even if we’re not leaving the house. We make plans. We wear masks everywhere we go. We stay in touch with those we love. We hope this will end and we can go back to the way it was. We hope to see those we love as soon as we possibly can. We hope and we hope and we hope. And us here, scattered stars across a lonely solar system, cast so far from one another, waiting for that first new dawn and the sun to come back to us after so long away.
(That up there’s from the peak pandemic era 2020 chapter of my new book I Wish to Say Lovely Things.)