Dear Vaccine

Dear Vaccine

#1

Dear vaccine,

please give them

a moment of rest,

prop them up

so they don’t

collapse on hospital

floors out of sheer

exhaustion.

Fortify their tired

and broken hearts,

after months of holding

phones over corpses

as their loved ones

wail on video

calls and say

their last

goodbyes.

Be their shield,

their sword

as they fight

for us

another

day.

#2

Dear vaccine,

I miss my father’s

bear hugs and the

countless little things

I had no idea I had

lost

a small table

for five (with no

acrylic partitions)

where we could

talk from brunch

to dinner, no

masks

the airport and

its rows of

crowded departure

seats

faces of people

on the

streets

crowds in

general

the massed

energy of our

collective

breaths.

Take us to

those places

again

one

day.

May 2, 2021

After Naomi Shihab Nye’s Dear Vaccine

Image from: https://www.globalvaccinepoem.com/