On COVID - Part II

by Jason Kaufman

When the doors and the parks and the gatherings reopen, who will get out first? Is it those who were sick, who paid their dues in the grandest of senses? Is it the workers, who cared for us while we stayed home? Is it our children, a generation after 9/11 who will again grow up in a world marked by fear and mistrust? Or is it the elderly, who want the most of life before it is over? Is it those that stayed in the smallest spaces, or those in houses with the fewest windows? Those on the highest floors who want to feel small pebbles between their toes, or those in the basement who want to feel the sun warm the parts on their scalp with the thinnest hairs? Whoever it is, I hope these pioneers walk with respect and care, honoring how sacred our shared spaces are, and remembering how quickly they can be taken from us.