Oh, you germing thing.
You’ve done so much to us
in so little time,
it is astonishing how little we know you,
how little you are.

What you’ve done in your instant invasion
is impressive, indeed.
I hate what you’ve done with the place
as echoes fall down every floor
and this city I know so well
is like a stranger to me now.
But everybody knows
a stranger changes every day
just as one’s most intimate does
sometimes,
growing from one to the other.

Who’s to say what this isolation
extra time with thought
and family
and sleep
and the body’s own rhythms
may do, once we become familiar with it?

These haunted halls of emptiness
may soon prove familiar
and beloved.