Seeing Friends During Quarantine

In the church parking lot, I wake up to you,

My friend through a car window.

Roll, it down, for heaven’s sake!

It’s been ages!

And there on the other side, another! Waves.

Hello!

Smiles, big eyes.

How the heck have you been?

Delight of recognition,

A triad, a row of connection, through three car windows

after what seems eons.

(Was it just a month we sat together over Zoom?

That time we wrote together, and told stories of isolation.

I wept long and hard afterward.)

Your light is brighter.

Your hair whiter.

You are real again.

How you lean in.

Pain vanishes for a flicker.

Oh, hope! Oh, love!

There is room tonight for my heart to heal a smidge,

Truth to spill from lips,

We are just ok.

It’s been hard. We are ok.

You two drive off knowing more,

Carry your beacons back to your cloistered lives,

And I to mine.