POETRY

Clean Skies

Remembering the message of last spring

(Clean skies over Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 18, 2020; Photo permission of Jimmy Wong)

A year ago a messenger
Was sent to Earth to slow us down,
A little airborne passenger,
Upon its head — a thorny crown.

“Be still,” it said “and you shall see
What Earth looks like without the haze.”
“This is the state your home could be
If…