Love from far away

I can’t imagine, can you? Getting up
every morning and going to work
at a hospital – or clinic – or morgue.

I can’t imagine, can you? Having no
healthcare or rent or family or food –
to have no choice of safety at all.

I can’t imagine, can you? Leaving home
for the E.R. with a fever and cough –
to be as afraid as a child lost.

Or how it will be to sit by the phone –
fists clenching and unclenching with nothing
to hold. During this pandemic, have you

imagined how you will say I love you,
I love you, I love you – from far away?