"Love's Pandemic Strategy"

(April 2020) 

"LOVE'S PANDEMIC STRATEGY"

You caught us well in Bethlehem,

But did not catch what ails us.

You caught our baby-self, our childhood-self.

You caught our saying “mother”, “brother”, “friend”.

This became yours, and makes you ours, for good.

You caught us well, in flesh, in rest,

In work: our seeking, questing;

Our laughing, weeping; and our many loves

To which we may say “yes”, or “no”, or “wait”.

To our surprise you caught our grown-up life,

Without contracting our diseased

Autonomy-obsession.

Pandemic freedom shuns tough claims of love

And trust. Disharmony endangers all

Our needed bonds; with you, with others. Self,

Itself, our being, forms a trap:

A stranger we must wrestle.

Every human carries this pandemic,

And bears its wounds within our heart and mind.

Those scars on our behavior span the world.

Our planet radiates the shade

And smell of viral darkness.

You caught us without catching this disease.

Our healthy vitals worked so well with you:

So charmed, we failed to grasp your alien scheme

To carry in you what we are.

You would contract our plague like

A lover poisoned by their true love’s kiss,

Or quarry by their faithful owner shot

Right through the heart, with no love lost. You did

Lure us, so we would infect you.

But love, your love, arranged this:

You caught this, arms outstretched, upon a cross.

“X” marks the spot upon your map of love

(Love’s trysting place with death), where we played false

While you played true, and won us whole!

Our curse, your cross, connected.

We hang here, nailed together.

That's your doing, all along.

We're caught! Now, can we catch you?

(by Dennis Evans, May 2020, edited)