Given the Circumstances

we all say now, in light of, as well
as can be, strange days, these
times.
The universe
has no short-term memory.
Each morning we have the grief-
work
of reminding the ravens,
the buried moles of our
losses
and because it’s spring,
the budding poplars, returning
house finches. Each dawn
we must tell the remade
world
our sorrows and
our worries. So
stay safe we
are also saying, and take
care
only this time
we mean something real.