The Quarantine Chronicles, Day 35

DAY 35: I stand accused, I stand 

accused of enjoying the quarantine

I deny I protest I am innocent

and my thoughts go to next summer

my training continues for the 

hard long trail I've planned

a hard long trail such as every

summer I walk: food, water

shelter on my back -- I alone

against the elements, embracing

the trail day after spectacular day --

now I am alone and again

surviving -- what if my excursions

were practice for refuge -- I

hear screams of the lost who

cannot leave home, what

tremendous suffering I can

barely feel -- screams of those

who have little food, no choc-

olate, no pizza pie -- have you not

also gone 2 x 20-mile days on

nothing, have you never got to

a dry creek counting on a 

drink -- screams of those

alone with themselves a life as

of mirror imaging they cannot

stand after the first day

-- that's not my best friend,

I want to kill that stranger --

I hear all this suffering and

feel pity for those who are meeting

it for the first time, but

I don't offer my helping hand.