Life’s Occupational Hazard

Death knocks on all doors

Breaks sealed windows

Levels the roofs of daily life.

Wake up to the smell

Of your mortality.

Embrace the Oneness

We all share with the ALL.

See the light within,

The darkness without

Will slowly fade

Revealing what’s known

By the simplest

Of Souls whose forbearance

Is a lesson taught

In the hospital halls

Of humanity:

The idea that love

Is a force creative

That dies not

Except in the hands of those

Whose hearts are closed.

Care Givers use that

Which is given them

By those who need help

With daily living:

Eternal life’s mirror,

The real Self’s

Reflected Image

Of every thought,

Word, gesture and deed.

Cosmic scrutiny

Of our commitment

To the Divinity’s

Edict to love each other

As He does us all.

Selfishly Selfless,

Since serving others

Is the narrow path

To and through the gate

Leading to the land

Of the truly free.

It is to this land

That hundreds of thousands of

Covidians now travel,

Caught unawares

They would be called

Away too soon from

The things and the people

They loved with vigor:

Homes, hobbies, foods,

Children, spouses, friends,

All left unable to protect,

Unable to comfort and console

In the precious little time

This sinister disease

Allows us to respond.

Our first responders

Have become our last.

Their intensive caring

More than the sum of all

The world’s sand granules,

By which they transform

The pain and agony

Of Human suffering

To something wondrous

For all to witness:

Love’s ability

To permeate darkness

With Divine Light,

Illuminating The Path

On which we all come from

And on which we all return.

Travel with God’s speed.

Original 3/8/2017 (on the death of a friend to cancer)

Revised 4/24/2020 (on the deaths of hundreds of thousands)