Read (and Love) in The Time of Corona

In these trying times, while we hope for joy to return,

while we wait for the tides to turn, 

for Spring to shine.

While we wait - to muck about and run.

Don’t whine.

Don’t lay there your fury,

your insinuations, your conspiracy theory,

your vile prejudices, your religious bigotry,

your not-so subtle racism in all their glory.

We need empathy, sympathy, kindness and a will to share

Not the greed to hoard, to board, goad hatred and make tensions flare.

While our hands lie bare, and no jobs to care;

while time ticks, ticks and ticks,  

don't despair.

Pick up a book, there are millions out there.

Pick up a book.

Read. 

Read, for the world’s sanity rests on it.

Read as though our lives depend on it.

For books teach us empathy, will make us kind and wise.

Only when we step into other person’s shoes, will we understand

we’ll see the world without scheme, colour, malice or guise.

An eye for an eye, before the world goes blind

let us hope we defeat both, this dreadful disease and

the sickness of our mind.