After the Virus

May 20, 2021

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is health.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

A philosophical health poem for children about whether they might remember the lessons the experience of COVID taught them once the pandemic is over:

After the virus, when we don't wear masks,
Not socially distant, no longer afraid,
When zooming's less frequent, and nobody asks
Were we too close to our friends while we played?

After the virus, when we have a fever,
And we are just sick, in no danger at all,
When we go to movies whenever we like
And go out to a park or a mall:

Will we remember,
O will we remember
How much we need others,
How much we all share?

Will we remember,
O will we remember
That we breed the same germs
And breathe the same air?

After the virus, when we're free to wander
Wherever we like, without so many rules,
When we no longer need to protect one another,
And it's summer vacation that closes our schools:

Will we remember,
O will we remember
The heroes who saved us,
Who kept us alive?

And will we remember,
O will we remember
To live out our lives
With their courage our guide?
With their love as our guide.

© by Nicholas Gordon

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/after4.html. For more poems about health, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/healthpoems.html.

This week’s theme: Health.
May 17: Perhaps You Think that, Yes, You Are an Island
May 18: I Wear My Mask for You
May 19: Zzzoom
May 20: After the Virus

Note: Google has decided to discontinue Feedburner, the free service that sends you this daily email. At the age of 80, I have decided that this would be a good time for me to discontinue the Poem of the Day. The last Poem of the Day email will be sent out on May 23rd.

I will still be posting a new Poem of the Week each week at my Web site (https://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html), as well as regularly adding new poems, drama, and fiction to the site. And you are welcome to follow me on:
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It has been a pleasure sending out, first, the Poem of the Week and later the Poem of the Day for nearly a quarter century. Thank you for being a subscriber and best wishes to you all,

Nick