Covid June   Spring came so late, but it came all the same — we willed it to mean what it always means: life! And the flowers still bloomed, and the names we gave ourselves were names from what we’d been before. That was our freedom! What was our freedom? It’s hard to remember — forgetting comes so easily now, and the power of the sun drives away common sense. Let’s pretend — it never happened. And that cough? We never heard it. Even Jesus stumbled — but then he got up! If we ignore it, it’s gone, vanquished, and if time is off its moorings, even old quarrels are something to cling to. Anything from before.     © Michael Fleming Brattleboro, Vermont June 2020