Corona’s Potential

Uninvited and unwanted you are long overdue in industrialised societies
especially those in which individualism & the economy reign supreme
You reveal our global connectivity and inescapable interdependence
demonstrate that not just family and the nation are our next of kin

You remind us of our collective frailty, vulnerability and lack of control
You reign in our technological & political hubris to govern outcomes
of collective practices, policies and techno-economic innovations
as they invade and pollute the most remote areas of the globe

You confront us with the realisation that nature is powerful after all
that irrespective of technological prowess, actions return as curse
achievements are tied to inevitable failures in unequal relations
with winners and losers unevenly distributed across the globe

A powerful symbol in mythology and cosmology you are encircling
holding in your embrace both good and evil, sacred and profane
with your bounding seeping to the core, affecting our relations
everywhere and everywhen into an open, unbounded future

Your global invasion reconnects us to caring communal life forms
that had gone out of fashion during the industrial mode of life
To survive we need to re-learn the mantra of a previous age
that one for all and all for one is the right & the only way

You show sacrifices to come with unexpected gifts and rewards
kindness among strangers with novel forms of communities
the next-door neighbour with the unknown health worker
and unknowable global others unified in a common goal

We owe you gratitude for rendering transparent what matters
our values and priorities, care and communal ethos, our love
for each other, for life and all creatures inhabiting the earth
all of us who are encompassed in this eternal braid of life

© Barbara Adam, 031020