Covid Fly-Away Blues

All around the world, people say, the animals are coming back, back into parks and open spaces once polluted with too many humans. As a boy and a man I’ve taken out the trash more times than I can remember, and it seems to me we make more now than ever. Adding to that are Immense River Companies that over-pack. You discover packages sitting on your front porch the size of Manhattan with a toothbrush inside. I thought when I left Sears I jetisoned my Stanley box-knife for good. Now I’m trying to find it.

Makes me want to fly away…but I can’t.

No one in their right mind wants to get in an enclosed space with a bunch of strangers, you don’t know who they’ve seen, or where they’ve been, and every cough sends a chill down your spine. Every time you pass someone within the dreaded 6 feet you hold your breath.

They can’t see under your mask, and your eyes look like you’re smiling, but your smile is really a grimmace because you’re holding your breath and wondering just how long you can last, the overriding existential question of life itself.

How much risk is too much?

Going to the store, or any public place where it’s busy, turns into a calculations games vaguely similar to Russian Roulette. You’re always wondering what the odds are in any unknown situation.

Is it safe? Because if it isn’t, the gamble isn’t worth it.

©Steven Hunley 2020

https://youtu.be/tR-0cSFs1C8 Fly Away (Live Acoustic) – LENNY KRAVITZ